Humboldt County Medical Marijuana Land Use Ordinance
The Buckeye's Comments: October 19, 2015
The Board of Directors of the Buckeye urge you, the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors of
Humboldt County, to mirror the content of three recently signed state statutes (AB 266; AB 243; and SB
643) as well as the water discharge rules recently adopted by the North Coast Regional Water Quality
Control Board, including items referenced or noted as specific citations, in the proposed Humboldt
County Medical Marijuana Land Use Ordinance(s).
The Board of Directors of the Buckeye urge you to support the staff ordinance(s) as presented in the
week of October 9, 2015 (herein called the “current staff ordinance”). Since medical marijuana growers
are to have their businesses legalized, they should be regulated according to what is best for the
environment and the public, not what they would prefer, as are all other types of legal enterprises. The
County government should require, in its regulation prior to March 1, 2016, what is truly needed to
protect the County as a whole from marijuana cultivation-related environmental abuses. Further, its
regulation should align with other regulatory platforms and the state level.
The Board of Directors of the Buckeye support the current staff ordinance, especially these features:
-Ensuring that county rules won’t cause significant environmental impacts under CEQA;
-Requiring grows larger than 2000 square feet to obtain a conditional use permit. This coincides
with the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board threshold;
-Prohibiting any cultivation on TPZ lands, unless by the State statute exemption;
-Requiring compliance for grows that existed as of Sept. 1, 2015;
-Requiring compliance with all existing state laws such as recent regional water regulations;
-Requiring growers using diverted water for irrigation to annually forebear such diversion
between March 1 and October 30 of each year;
-Allowing the county to reduce the size of a grow’s permitted cultivation area in poor
environmental conditions- such as drought or low-flow watershed condition- if the grow uses
diverted water as an irrigation source;
-Requiring all cultivators who divert water for irrigation to establish on-site storage or water
deliveries to retain enough water for their grow size.
The Board of Directors of the Buckeye urge you to pass, at minimum, the regulatory features of the
current staff ordinance, which give a strong chance of protecting what remains of the public trust
resources and environment of this county. Any weakening (via accepting alternative staff drafts of
regulations) at this time would be an unnecessary give-away of environmental protection authority.
Above and beyond the current staff ordinance features, The Board of Directors of the Buckeye also
suggest that the County consider the entire marijuana production cycle and indirect impacts of
marijuana production, and exceed the “current staff ordinance” by including provisions in the areas
listed below.
Water Quality Protection:
-Regulate pesticide/herbicide/rodenticide use in marijuana production;
-Regulate pesticide/herbicide/rodenticide content in water runoff from marijuana
cultivation sites.
Soils Protection:
-Regulate soil erosion via the State Water Board waiver process to which timber
harvesters are subject.
-Regulate disposal of imported (non-natural) growing media used in marijuana
cultivation.
Land Use Protection:
- The Board of Directors of the Buckeye also questions the exclusion of commercial and
industrial zones, especially for existing commercial and industrial facilities, for marijuana
cultivation.
- The Board of Directors of the Buckeye urge you to prohibit marijuana cultivation- both
new and existing cultivation- on all TPZ lands, except per the 3 acre exemption allowed
under the Forest Practice Rules.
The three bills signed into law by Governor Brown last week give counties such as ours a valuable
opportunity to protect our environment and public trust resources by setting county standards higher
than those of the state’s new medical marijuana regulatory laws. But since this “ window of
opportunity” closes on March 1, 2016, we urge you to pass standards that conform to state regulations
as they exist or will be amended, and complete their passage prior to that date.
The Board of Directors of the Buckeye appreciates your willingness to engage with the public and groups
such as The Buckeye, whose mission is to protect the working landscapes of our county, and those who
make their living from them. Thanks for this chance to comment.
Respectfully,
Claire McAdams, Ph.D.
Chair, The Buckeye, P.O. Box 5607, Eureka, CA 95502