By The Willits News staff
Posted: 05/26/2010 11:03:56 AM PDT
Large-scale commercial marijuana growing isn't only a problem for law enforcement officials, according to the Mendocino County grand jury, but an environmental threat that can hit every county resident where it hurts most in their wallets especially during years of scant rainfall.
The grand jury became aware of the problem while looking into ways to improve the organization and management of county water resources following three years of below-average rainfall.
What jurors discovered was "significant illegal use, diversion, and pollution of the existing watershed at marijuana garden sites."
To reach those conclusions, grand jurors interviewed elected officials and employees of the county, the cities of Willits and Ukiah, and representatives of various water districts and jurisdictions. Jurors also "attended public hearings, committee meetings, and reviewed public reports, statistics and photographic evidence concerning the county and the Russian River watershed."
The investigation began after the grand jury learned water was being illegally diverted from irrigation canals in Potter Valley during the 2009 water shortage, to be transported and sold in other county areas. Citizens had notified the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office that tanker trucks were filling up at Potter Valley irrigation canals under cover of darkness.
The grand jury also obtained photographic evidence taken during the 2009 growing season that showed water being diverted from creeks to irrigate illegal marijuana garden sites.
Over the past two years the number of citizen reports/complaints to law enforcement regarding environmental issues related to illegal marijuana farming in the county has increased, the grand jury says.
During an October 2009 forum in Willits, a sheriff's office spokesperson reported the department had seized 362,000 during the year an estimated 10 percent of what was being grown illegally in the county that season. Using a conservative estimate of one gallon of water per plant per day, the grand jury placed illegal water consumption at 3.6 million gallons per day, or about 11 acre feet.
At the time of the investigation, the grand jury noted, many county residents were subject to "significant water rationing," and "water for both residential and agricultural use was at a critically low stage."
Water released from Coyote Dam at Lake Mendocino was being restricted during the summer to maintain sufficient flow to protect fall fish habitat.
Animal carcasses, human garbage, human waste, herbicides and animal poisons have been found at the diversion sites, the grand jury says, and photographic evidence shows river water being polluted by highly toxic compounds used as fertilizer and pesticides by growers, who dilute them by mixing them with water in dammed areas of streambeds. Possession and use of many of these chemicals are banned In the United States, the grand jury notes.
In some cases, streams have been diverted, others have carried toxins downstream to rivers and lakes, devastating bird and aquatic life, and posing a threat to human habitat.
The grand jury report also charges illegal marijuana growers have been responsible for clear-cutting and clearing vegetation, and terracing slopes, contributing to soil erosion that damages county watersheds.
Firearms and boobytraps have been found at illegal grow sites, the jury adds, and federal inspectors and law enforcement officers have been injured in the process of cleaning up the garden sites.
Federal employees told jurors "Illegal grows of marijuana have left portions of public land off-limits," and people have been shot and killed at these sites.
After police eradicate the crop, the materials used at remote sites are often left in place due to the difficulty and cost of removal, the grand jury report notes, and are often reused by new growers.
The Bureau of Land Management has used California Conservation Corps personnel to clean up illegal sites.
The report urges citizens to report any suspected illegal use of water to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office using the department's tip line: 467-9159. It also recommends the sheriff's office serve as the lead agency to coordinate investigations and responses of water-related crimes.
The report also recommends the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office "rigorously prosecute water-related crimes," and "charge growers, found in control of illegal sites, with the cost of site cleanup."
Asset forfeiture funds should be used to institute a program to clean up illegal sites, remove toxins, open the natural water flow, and dispose of material used at the site, such as plastic pipe, water storage containers, and plastic sheeting, the report recommends.
"Access and unregulated illegal use of water resources in Mendocino County impact all of us," the report concludes. "Illegal water diversion resulted in the conversion of approximately 3.6 million gallons of water per day for irrigation of illegal [marijuana] crops in the county, while legitimate water-users were being rationed to 50 percent of normal use."
The report also deplored the "irresponsible destruction of the environment," resulting in pollution, damage to the watershed, loss of water source, toxic chemicals being carried downstream to rivers and lakes, the destruction of bird and aquatic life, and the loss of land use by the public, resulting "in [the] long-term degradation of the natural environment."
http://www.willitsnews.com/ci_15165887
No comments:
Post a Comment