LAKEPORT >> Water regulations outside of Lake County may affect local cannabis cultivation. The Board of Supervisors discovered this quirk when the sought clarification from the state on use of irrigated land.
District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele asked for the state Water Resources Control Board (SWCB) for information on the matter. He was under the impression that the rules on irrigation for cannabis were going to be applied equally across the state.
He learned otherwise.
“Lake County drains in more than one direction,” Steele said. “We go both in the central board and the coast board.”
SWRCB Representative Kason Grady said there are different regulations on water, depending on aspects specific to a region.
“They allow it be regulated on a regional basis due to various regional factors including technical factors associated with water quality, hydrology, amounts of water, water availability but also there are other social differences,” Grady said.
There are nine regional water boards across the state. Their role is to protect water quality, including surface water, ocean water and groundwater. Decisions made by a regional board based are sent to the state board for review. The state body also address water quantity issues that apply statewide and cannabis has become one of those issues.
“It’s been in our state for quite some time and prior to 2014, the regions have been addressing water quality impacts from cannabis cultivation,” Grady said. “We were able to demonstrate the need for additional water quality protections to the legislatures.”
Grady said the state approved funding for the SWRCB staff to develop a pilot program that includes four components to see which works best with their system. After 2015 there were regulatory systems in place applied broadly to regions. These intended to address the types pollution that could occur from the cultivation of marijuana.
The state is now considering if distinct regulation should apply to areas like Lake County that have two different outflows so they will not have to abide by two separate regulations.
“The SWRCB has come in and are in the process right now of drafting a general waste discharge requirement,” Grady said. “I think that will likely supersede these orders and make a common system so that people in Lake County aren’t having to comply with two different orders.”
A few local growers have already received permits from the Regional Water Quality Control Board for irrigation based upon their location and where their water flows out.
Michael Green Lake County Growers Association President said the SWRCB has been extremely helpful when it has come to clarifying the regulations of growing.
“North Coast (Region) was really cutting edge, they were the first ones out the gate and there is a slice of Lake County that is in the North Coast Region,” Green said. “It is encouraging to hear the state take over before the other seven regions kind of flounder about.”
With that information, Green said the growers learned a lot about what type of regulations the SWRCB does with other programs and various land principles that have to be followed in other regions of the state.
Public comment for the draft will come out in early May so those can voice their thoughts and opinions on the overall regulation of waste water from cannabis cultivation Grady said.
