Drought draws attention to cannabis water consumption

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Cavedale Road is bumpy – steep, narrow, its asphalt broken like a choppy puzzle. Perhaps this is as it should be, given that this is the road to the top of the world.

“Welcome to the top of the world,†says Doug Gardner, the owner of the property located in the Mayacamas, just yards from the Napa County line. There’s a five-bedroom cabin next door called Top of the World, although Gardner’s family sold that part of the property in 1981. But no one wants to live there full time – the road is too bumpy.

Gardner, a sturdy 38-year-old man, works alone inside the fenced-in cultivation site, which is worth an acre of cannabis planted in “Geopot” fabric barrels and underground beds. About a third of this harvest is only days away from harvest, and the air smells fresh tangy. Gardner’s name is apt, but it turns out this is his first harvest. Even so, it is exceptional, in part thanks to the abundant water supply with which the ranch is blessed.

Hooker Creek springs up from a mountain slope just across its driveway and flows year round into a pond on the property. This pond provides the entire water supply for the acre of plants. Gardner installed a pond-level pump to bring water back upstream to the grow site, and a system of drip irrigation hoses and pipes distributes the water.

Gardner has suffered from epilepsy his entire life, but at some point he found that cannabis – especially high-CBD cannabis – was invaluable in managing the disorder. He worked four years ago to get a license from Sonoma County, insisting he was going to grow “medicinal cannabis.”

Everything revolves around water

Permit Sonoma didn’t care, they just wanted to make sure he kept his water consumption within the quotas put in place for outdoor cannabis farms: 2 acre-feet per year. The default water use guidelines, county lists are derived from the State Department of Water Resources. Indoor or mixed light cannabis is allocated 4 acre-feet per acre of canopy, and outdoor cannabis grows 2 acres per canopy. (An acre-foot is the amount of water that covers one acre per foot of depth, or about 326,000 gallons; the “cover” referred to is the leaf area of ​​plants – Gardner’s only acre of ground cover. occupies a 3 acre fenced garden.)

“We don’t want to underestimate the amount of water used – water is obviously a precious natural resource in Sonoma County, there is a lot of demand on your water and our groundwater,†said Bradley Dunn, policy manager of Permit Sonoma. He explained that the default rates are high “in line with our goal of protecting water in Sonoma County.”

Permit Sonoma’s guidelines include not only cannabis crops, but other agricultural uses as well: vineyard irrigation is set at 0.6 acre-ft per year, irrigated orchards at 1.8, and irrigated pastures at 3.6 (although irrigation of livestock only arrives at 0.5). These numbers explain why many believe cannabis is a water-hungry crop and plays a significant role in the region’s water scarcity.

This assumption is misleading for two reasons: the value of the crop and the total area. In Sonoma County, there are nearly 60,000 acres of grape cultivation, compared to less than 30 acres of cannabis cultivation.

The state’s Department of Water Resources shows that pasture grasses, almonds, pistachios, alfalfa, and citrus all use more than 4 acre-feet per year; vineyards grow to 2.85 acres (far more than the county’s default number, by the way). Cannabis isn’t even on the list.

“There are several factors when looking at how much water is needed for a crop,†says Erich Pearson, manager of the Sparc dispensary for its retail operations and grow site at Glen Ellen, down the hill. Gardner’s garden hill. “How many jobs does this culture create? How much revenue does that make – to the business and the county – from that acre of harvest? How much tax revenue? I can guarantee you that no crop in California produces more tax revenue than cannabis.

California collected about $ 817 million in tax revenue from adult marijuana in fiscal year 2020-21, state officials estimated.

For the Sparc operation at Glen Ellen, Pearson says they are using less than 1.5 acres per year, below the county allocation. An elaborate drip irrigation system distributes well water on-site – and unlike all other farms in the county, wells are measured for cannabis growers.

The view from Glentucky

Mike Benziger is another prominent cannabis producer in the Sonoma Valley, having started a second career after selling Benziger Family Winery to the Wine Group in 2015. A contact with cancer led him to become interested in several kinds of Medicinal herbs, including cannabis, all grow on his farms playfully named Glentucky Farms in Glen Ellen.

Few people in cannabis cultivation have as much experience as Benziger in agriculture in general, and he was able to use that experience to help him manage water use wisely. For example, he uses soil moisture probes in many areas of the farm. “This way we only water when the plant needs it and not on a formula. It saves a lot of water, â€he said.

Like other cannabis producers and most commercial and industrial projects approved by license-to-use since 2004, its wells are monitored for water flow, and the county can inspect and monitor its water consumption at any time. moment. However, he adds, their permit only authorizes the use of rainwater, to avoid tapping into the groundwater resource.

“We have been practicing biodynamic agriculture for 21 years with a focus on soil health, which has a direct effect on the ability to hold moisture. It also saves a lot of water, â€Benziger said.

“We have 25,000 gallons of rainwater holding capacity,†he added. “Which under normal conditions is sufficient.”

Email Christian Kallen at [email protected].

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