Pubdate: Sun, 11 Aug 2013
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Chico Enterprise-Record
Contact:  http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861

QUIT STALLING, ENFORCE THE LAW

Rather than doing something about pollution from marijuana plantations
in the hills, a task force was formed.

After months of emails and letters grow increasingly testy and
unproductive, sometimes it's better just to get everyone in a room and
hash things out - unless you're in the government.

Put a bunch of bureaucrats in the room and it's a sure sign that
nothing will get accomplished, in part because some agencies - state
agencies like the California Highway Patrol, California State Parks
and Department of Water Resources come to mind - have an aversion to
admitting fault.

Two meetings on the same topic this week, one in Oroville and one in
Sacramento, produced absolutely nothing. The topic was how the state
Water Quality Control Board won't go into the foothills to enforce
water quality laws, despite the county's request for enforcement,
because they don't want to encounter marijuana growers. Even when
Butte County offers armed assistance, they still won't go.

It's obviously selective enforcement. On the north coast, with the
same agency but a different region and a different regional leader,
they do crack down on marijuana growers who pollute waterways with
chemicals and silt. In our region, though, they won't do it. But they
do go after farmers and logging companies.

One would think the state would quickly say they can't have different
policies for different regions. At both meetings this week, however,
that apparently did not happen.

The meetings were brokered by local legislators Dan Logue and Jim
Nielsen, and featured county and state officials. The principals came
out of both meetings amazingly tight-lipped for public officials,
saying only that the meeting was "successful."

Oroville area Supervisor Bill Connelly, who's upset by the state's
lack of enforcement on marijuana farms in the foothills of his
district, said after the first meeting that the participants were
asked not to talk about the meeting "in detail" to the press. Such
arrogance is typical of state agencies. The farther they get from the
taxpayers who pay their salaries, the easier it is to ignore them.

After the next day's meeting in Sacramento, which included
representatives from the governor's office, the best Logue could
report was that the participants agreed something needed to be done.
So what did they do? They created a task force.

Great. They're going to create a task force rather than go out and do
their jobs. They're going to have more meetings with high-paid
bureaucrats that probably will be only slightly more productive than
the first two. Meanwhile, our foothills become polluted by rat poison,
our streams are diverted for irrigation, and an environmental mess is
left behind by squatters who lived on the land after watching the crop
for months.

Talking about the problem won't fix anything. These people need to
head to the hills and see what's happening. But that would involve
leaving the office. A task force and more meetings sounds much easier.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt