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MALIBU POT BUSTS HIGHLIGHT ADVERSE ENVIRO EFFECTS

Extensive statewide illegal marijuana plantation operations, many of which are believed to be run by Mexican drug cartels, are wreaking havoc on the environment, officials say.

The eradication of more than 3,500 marijuana plants from three plantation sites in Malibu by a coalition of local, state and federal agencies on July 17 has not only raised questions about the culprit, but also about the damaging effects of growing marijuana on public lands.

Though no arrests have been made, a National Park Service official last week said the plantations-two in Malibu Creek State Park and one in Zuma-Trancas Canyon-could have possibly been cultivated by Mexican drug cartels, which are believed to be behind extensive pot-growing operations that have germinated throughout the state.

We have found marijuana gardens in the Santa Monica Mountains with weapons in them in the past that are most likely related to that [the cartels], but I don't know if this was one or not," Darcy McDonald, chief of the National Park Service's law enforcement branch, said last Thursday in a telephone interview.

For years, Mexican drug cartels have used remote California forests to camouflage and carry out their business, making hundreds of millions of dollars, according to National Drug Control Policy officials.  But the pot production has surged in recent years because it has become increasingly difficult to smuggle marijuana across the U.S.-Mexico border, officials say.  As a result, environmental damage has also surged, Shane Krogen, executive director and founder of the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew ( HSVTC ), said in a telephone interview Friday.

Marijuana plantation growers dam mountain creeks to create pools of water, which they then siphon into miles of gravity-fed hoses that lead to smaller tubing to irrigate the plants.  The irrigation lines can run up to a mile away from the water source, which makes the plantations more difficult to find, McDonald said.

Organizations like the HSVTC rip up and remove the intricate irrigation systems, eradicate the plants and develop intelligence on the workers.

They [the cartel growers] smuggle in nitrogen-based fertilizer from Mexico, which contains pesticides known to cause cancer in humans and animals," Krogen said, adding that the pesticides used have been outlawed in the U.S.  for the past 25 to 30 years.

The pesticides leach directly into the creeks and accelerate the growth rate of algae and weeds, which decelerates the water flow.  Consequently, Krogen explained, the water temperature increases and kills aquatic life.  McDonald said illegal rodenticides are also utilized, which disrupt the food chain by poisoning rodents and their predators.

But the carcinogenic pesticides also pose a threat to human health, because rainfall washes them into local watersheds ( and eventually into the ocean ) where campgrounds are often located and people often swim.

Additionally, Krogen said, pot growers monitoring the plantations heighten the risk of wildfire by lighting illegal campfires, and they illegally poach deer and bears, among other animals.  "The other week in the Sierras, we found that cartel workers had killed five turtles to make soup, and they skinned and ate five skunks," Krogen said.

Though its disparaging environmental effects may speak loudly, the issue has remained relatively quiet, said Malibu resident and author Katie Arnoldi, who has been conducting extensive research on the issue for a novel.  "Law enforcement seems hesitant to talk about the issue in the Santa Monica Mountains," Arnoldi said.  "It's unclear exactly why."

Rusty Payne, spokesman for the U.S.  Drug Enforcement Agency, said in response: "We don't people to go out and look for pot plants.  The last thing you want to do is go looking for marijuana plants because chances are they are being cultivated by a criminal network and may or may not be very violent.

I think it's a long-term problem we are always going to be battling," he continued.  "We don't just want to cut down plants, we want to take organizations down and dismantle their entire business.  We want to take dangerous people off the streets and put them behind bars."

Calls made Thursday and Friday of last week to the state's Marijuana Enforcement Team, California State Parks, the California National Guard, the California Department of Fish and Game, the office of Senator Dianne Feinstein, and the Governor's Office of Emergency Services have not yet been returned.

Arnoldi last week said she hadn't heard of drug cartels growing marijuana on public lands until she conducted research for the development of a character in her latest novel, "Point Dume."

Having since participated with volunteer organizations in a number of marijuana eradication operations throughout the state, Arnoldi said, "The environmental devastation is really, really bad.  They [cartels] are permanently polluting water, and are often tapping directly into the Las Virgenes water system."

The problem, she said, is that the state's economic crisis makes it impossible to employ enforcement to adequately patrol state lands.  The estimated cost to clean up one cultivated acre is between $10,000 and $12,000, according to a July 21 press release from the National Park Service.  While the legalization of marijuana may seem like a quick solution, Krogen and Arnoldi say avoiding taxes on it will incentivize its cultivation on public lands.  "The more people learn this is a problem, the more they are going to put pressure on our state budget to do something," Krogen said.  "The state is broke, so the only way we're going to solve this is through federal government."

In 2007, approximately 3,900 marijuana plants were found on 1.5 acres of National Park Service land at Trancas Canyon, with an estimated street value of $10 million.  The largest marijuana cultivation seizure in the greater Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area occurred at Malibu Creek State Park in 2005, which raked in approximately 28,000 plants.

Throughout California, more than 3.6 million marijuana plants were seized on state and federal public lands in 2008, according to the National Park Service.

But only one of every four sites is found, Krogen said, "so there are thousands we don't know about."