Pubdate: Fri, 31 Jul 2015
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Sacramento Bee
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/0n4cG7L1
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376

GROWING POT OUTDOORS IS INDEED A WASTE OF WATER

To hear local medical marijuana advocates tell it, they are martyrs 
and misunderstood victims of misplaced drought-shaming.

But there's nothing misplaced about what the Sacramento County Board 
of Supervisors did earlier this week. With their minds rightly on 
conserving water in a drought, they doubled down on policies that 
limit how much pot can be grown in unincorporated areas of the county 
and penalize people who ignore those rules.

In many ways, this issue is nothing new. Growing medical marijuana 
has been illegal outdoors since last year, when the supervisors 
decided to crack down on huge operations at the southern end of the 
county. It remains OK to do it indoors as long as it's only nine plants.

The new wrinkle? Tougher demands to conserve water during a fourth 
year of drought.

That led the supervisors earlier this week to designate outdoor pot 
growing as "water waste" under the county Water Agency Code. 
Violators are liable for fines of up to $500 per day.

On Tuesday, they stayed their course of conservation. In fact, they 
broadened it.

Now any activity that's illegal and relies on water - whether it's 
growing marijuana outdoors or building a drainage ditch to illegally 
divert and collect water - is considered "water waste" and subject to 
stiffer fines. That goes for existing county and state laws, as well 
as any new ones the Board of Supervisors decides to enact.

"If, because of the continuing drought, the board found it 
appropriate to prohibit the installation of new turf, for example, 
the ordinance would consider that water waste as well," Ted Wolter, 
chief of staff for Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan, told The Bee's Brenna Lyles.

Supervisor Phil Serna insists that updating the ordinance "wasn't 
about marijuana. It was about water conservation."

The pot advocates don't buy that, of course, but he's right. Growing 
marijuana outdoors is a big waste of water at a time when we don't 
have much. According to the California Department of Fish and 
Wildlife, one plant can drink 5 to 10 gallons of water per day. And 
to restate the obvious, it is illegal.

Unfortunately, not all counties have weighed in on this issue the way 
Sacramento has. Yolo County supervisors backed off a proposed 
ordinance that would have limited the number of marijuana plants 
grown outdoors to 12 per parcel.

As reservoir levels fall, farmers, ranchers and homeowners are 
cutting back. The same should go for marijuana growers. In our 
parched state, they can't waste water on weed.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom