[env-trinity] PPIC: Regulating Marijuana as a Crop (Humboldt Co. fish habitat map)

Tue May 10 12:43:51 PDT 2016

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Regulating Marijuana as a Crop

 <http://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/van-butsic> Van Butsic,
<http://www.ppic.org/main/bio.asp?i=238> Patrick Murphy May 09, 2016 

In the 20 years since marijuana was legalized for medical use in California,
it has become an increasingly legitimate crop in the state's agricultural
landscape. Yet despite relatively steady progress in moving marijuana
cultivation out of the shadows, important questions remain about the crop's
impact on water and the environment, and whether the state can regulate
these issues successfully. 

Last year the state legislature passed laws designed to regulate medical
marijuana production. Should Californians vote to legalize recreational
marijuana use this fall, the state will need to take an even more active
role in regulating production, as argued in
<http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=1189> a recent PPIC report. 

Marijuana growing has yet to move to large-scale production, but that could
change with shifts in state or federal laws. Both the total amount of
marijuana produced and number of cultivation sites are difficult to
estimate. An often cited but uncertain estimate is that California has about
50,000 cultivation sites. A recent effort to
<http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/044023/meta;jsessi
onid=9B967C8BD7F7D5B0F7FB7651A8E7C7CD.c1.iopscience.cld.iop.org> map grows
in Humboldt County suggests that most have less than 100 plants and
typically cultivate less than one acre. These small grows are usually
located far from improved roads and often scattered on steep slopes.
Currently, only 7 percent of grows in Humboldt County are on what could be
considered prime agricultural land. 

The biggest environmental concerns regarding marijuana cultivation-or any
agricultural commodity, for that matter-are water use, deforestation, and
water pollution. Given the small size of most grows, marijuana production
currently does not appear be a major driver of deforestation in California,
although building access roads may cause erosion and fragment wildlife
habitat. 

And although it has been reported to be a thirsty plant, recent estimates of
marijuana's water use in Humboldt County-one of the state's biggest growing
areas-suggest that under 2,000 acre feet a year is used for that county's
entire crop. This is enough to irrigate about 400 acres of almonds (for
scale, California currently has more than 300,000 irrigated acres of
almonds). Some water used for marijuana irrigation
<http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0120016>
comes from headwater streams that are home to sensitive species, and water
use tends to increase in the fall when these watersheds are most stressed.
If the crop were to be widely grown in drier areas, water impact might
increase. Recent proposals for large marijuana
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/us/in-california-marijuana-is-smelling-mo
re-like-big-business.html?_r=0> greenhouse operations in Southern California
desert communities also raise questions about water supply.

State regulations have recently given regional water quality boards and
county governments better tools to manage marijuana growing. The
<http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/northcoast/press_room/pdf/2015/150813_cannabi
s_order.pdf> North Coast Regional Water Board has adopted regulations
requiring all marijuana operations over 2,000 square feet to enroll in a
program requiring monitoring and potential cleanup for water discharge and
diversions at existing marijuana operations. Humboldt County has introduced
one of the state's first land use ordinances for marijuana production, which
limits cultivation size based on zoning type and square footage of the
parcel.

The legal market for marijuana in California is likely to expand, especially
if voters approve recreational use this fall. This presents both
opportunities and challenges. The state can establish rules that make access
to the market contingent upon following environmentally responsible and
water-smart growing practices. The challenge is that for the regulations to
be meaningful, they must be enforced. State and county officials will need
to monitor the location of grows and practices, and collect information that
can guide future policies to effectively reduce the crop's impact on land
and water resources. Accomplishing that will require adequate time and
staff.

Learn more

Read  <http://www.ppic.org/main/blog_detail.asp?i=1822> "California Streams
Going to Pot from Marijuana Boom" (PPIC blog, July 23, 2015)
Visit the  <http://www.ppic.org/water/> PPIC Water Policy Center

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