California takes new approach on water regulation for pot farms

WILLOW CREEK

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife helicopter circled over steep timberland in Humboldt County’s coastal mountains, prowling for potential water diversions and environmental damage caused by what is arguably the state’s most lucrative agricultural product: marijuana.

The problems weren’t hard to find.

The pot farms below sprawled out with factory-like orderliness. From the air, the rows of budding plants resembled citrus orchards. Leveled terraces supported plastic-lined greenhouses capable of producing multiple marijuana yields. Giant water tanks stood nearby.

Lt. DeWayne Little, a veteran game warden with a muscular build and a shaved head, snapped photos of the clearings. The view unsettled him.

“Marijuana uses about the same amount of water that corn uses,” he said. “But you wouldn’t grow corn up here. This area is not made for agriculture. But people are just carving out chunks of the mountain and casting that aside” for marijuana.

Little and...

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