California Fish and Wildlife Journal (Sep 2020)
Two years after legalization: implementing the Cannabis Cultivation Policy in southern coastal California
Abstract
During the first two years of legal recreational cannabis cultivation in California, the State Water Resources Control Board’s Cannabis Cultivation Program enrolled 4,391 cultivators into the Cannabis General Order. The South Coast Regional Cannabis Unit, covering approximately 28,500 km2 in southern coastal California, account for 519 of those cultivators, 516 of which are indoor cultivations. The observed distribution of commercial recreational cannabis cultivation reflects local government restrictions and, combined with the urban nature of the areas where cultivation is permitted in southern California, results in a majority of cultivation being indoor. Of the active enrollees in the South Coast region with indoor cultivation, 94% of the cultivations are discharging their industrial wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works via a sewer connection. The remaining enrollees in the South Coast region with indoor cultivation haul their industrial wastewater to a permitted wastewater treatment facility. These discharges pose a low threat to water quality, provided that they are compliant with the sewer agency’s requirements and/or wastewater treatment facility’s requirements. As a result, all but the three outdoor cultivators enrolled with the State Water Resources Control Board in the South Coast region were issued waivers of waste discharge requirements as of 1 January 2020. Enforcement of illicit cultivation for the purpose of the protection of water quality and habitat also plays an important role in the South Coast Regional Cannabis Unit’s Cannabis Cultivation Program. The South Coast Regional Cannabis Unit inspected 143 illicit cultivation sites as of 1 January 2020. Observations from inspections of illicit sites identified threats to Clean Water Act 303(d) waterbodies and Regional Water Quality Control Board priority water systems, and observed illegal and/or unauthorized pesticide use, evidence of and potential for sediment mobilization, and ubiquitous and substantial litter. These illicit cultivation sites pose a threat to water quality, aquatic and riparian habitats, and fish and wildlife, though the effects have not yet been quantified.
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