A DARKER SIDE OF POT GROWING

The cost of a pound of marijuana on the street may not reflect the
steep cost to the land where it was grown and to people living nearby.

With the ongoing trend of moving big marijuana grows indoors, drug
enforcement agents are frequently uncovering serious environmental
contamination problems.

Mostly, the pollution is from diesel generators used to power
energy-hogging sodium lights and ventilation equipment needed to grow
high potency marijuana indoors. A below-standard diesel storage tank,
and improper disposal of motor oil, can lead to soil and groundwater
pollution that can cost thousands of dollars to clean up -- and in
some circumstances is impossible to remedy at all.

The contamination has become more and more a part of criminal cases
stemming from pot raids. Often, it's the owner of the property --
perhaps leasing it, even unknowingly, to pot growers -- who ends up
responsible.

Just how widespread or serious the problem is depends on who you ask.
Police, prosecutors and game wardens insist it is huge. Others claim
that isn't the case; they say that most growers are responsible, and
many don't even use the diesel generators that tend to be at the
center of the problem.

It's difficult to get a handle on the scope of the issue, and whether
people irresponsibly using generators for otherwise legal purposes may
be just as big a problem.

Everywhere We Go

"It's everywhere we go," said Ron Prose with the Bureau of Narcotics
Enforcement, a division of the California Department of Justice. "I'm
not talking about the guys with four plants in the closet. I'm talking
about the guys who are like millionaires."

In 2001, a pilot program was launched with sheriffs' departments in
California and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to work on
indoor grows. Prose said that drug enforcement agents frequently found
grows in Southern Humboldt County and Mendocino County that used
diesel generators, sometimes running them off underground tanks. The
tanks were often leaking or connected with poorly coupled hoses to the
generators. The growers dumped oil or haphazardly tossed oil
containers on the ground, Prose said.

Soon, county prosecutors and the Department of Toxic Substances
Control began to take notice. Today, there are several cases pending
in Humboldt County Superior Court.

The problem is, the growers themselves often aren't the owners of the
property.

"Many times we deal with the owners, given that the perpetrators
aren't available," said Luis Rivera of the North Coast Regional Water
Quality Control Board.

Depending on the circumstances, when large numbers of buildings are
erected and significant changes are made to the property, that may
seem fair. But occasionally, an absentee landlord really doesn't know
what's happening on his property.

"If you or I changed our oil and dumped it in the back yard, we'd be
in a lot of trouble," said Sgt. Wayne Hanson, who leads the Drug
Enforcement Unit for the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department.

Hanson said it is often tough to prove who the suspects are. In one
case, contamination from a grow was shuffled off to an unsuspecting
property buyer, who is now trying to recoup cleanup costs from the
original owner, Hanson said.

Rivera admitted that it's not possible to put a score on the problem,
since a survey of the issue isn't readily available. But he said the
board staff only deals with the worst problems, and even a minor spill
can prove troublesome locally.

"The impact is immediate and very perceptible to the people around
it," Rivera said.

Oil and diesel can find its way into groundwater and into drinking
water, and into creeks when it rains.

The county Environmental Health Department responds to spills that may
threaten drinking water supply. Department Director Brian Cox said
that environmental health responded to eight separate spills related
to marijuana grows in 2001. Since then, he believes the number has
come down.

Where the problem seems most acute, in Southern Humboldt, Cox said he
believes education has gone a long way.

"I think the residents in Southern Humboldt care and they don't want
to see degradation of their environment," Cox said.

Just Bad Apples

That's what Richard Jay Moller thinks, too. A well-connected Southern
Humboldt criminal defense attorney, Moller believes poorly managed
fuel and oil is the exception rather than the rule.

While he agreed that some contamination takes place, he said that many
growers seem to have made the switch to cleaner propane generators.
(Some sources say it's only because they are quieter.) It's the
greedier big-time indoor growers who use diesel, he said.

"The unfortunate thing about the crackdown on outdoor growing is that
it has led people indoors," Moller said.

While that argument roils law enforcement agents, it is true that many
outdoor growers have gone inside, and have become increasingly
sophisticated to avoid detection. Prose remembered an operation staged
inside a $250,000 home with high-end lighting and ventilation systems.
No one lived there, and in fact, the grow was nearly self-sufficient.
A cell phone would call the caretaker if anything was amiss with the
operation.

Still, Prose said, the grower's waste disposal was primitive. He
merely opened a valve on the generator to let the oil spill out the
window through a tube.

Moller argued that there are no doubt some bad apples. But he said
that out of all the people using equipment -- for any reason -- that
requires diesel and motor oil, there are a few who are not
responsible.

Following Their Noses

Several years ago, Fish and Game Warden Larry Bruckenstein and a
co-worker stumbled across a stream that smelled of diesel. The two
followed their noses up the stream and the smell got stronger. At the
source of the smell, they found an indoor grow and diesel leaking
right into the creek.

Bruckenstein is particularly frustrated with the growers, because he
says they have the money to do things right. Pot can fetch more than
$3,000 per pound. A May bust in Garberville turned up what might have
been $8.75 million worth, had the plants reached maturity.

The raid by the DEA, the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement and the
Humboldt County Drug Task Force on three parcels found 20 buildings
and 10,000 plants. The bust also netted several rifles and two
all-terrain vehicles.

The equipment inside the structures was powered by two diesel
generators, one 125-kilowatt and the other an 85-kilowatt generator.
In this case, leaking fuel and oil caused minimal damage, according to
environmental health officials.

All of the 27,000 pot plants destroyed by the task force since January
were found in indoor grows. It's likely that other busts will be made
once the outdoor growing season is in full swing, but indoor grows are
becoming a greater percentage of the total figure. Part of that is
because operators can grow three crops per year.

The biggest indoor grow bust in California history took place in 1998
on Lord-Ellis Summit off State Highway 299. About 12,000 plants were
found in a house used exclusively for growing. Its five operators were
reportedly making $50,000 per month.

But instead of using a small portion of that income to upgrade fuel
storage, Bruckenstein said, "They cut corners at every possible chance."

If petroleum products enter state waters, the state Department of Fish
and Game can prosecute both criminally and civilly. And while the
regional water board can issue a cleanup and abatement order and levy
stiff fines, often the mess just can't be cleaned up.

Not Just Growers

One manager of a Humboldt County hydroponics store, who asked not to
be named, isn't convinced the problem is that severe.

He estimated that perhaps 95 percent of his customers who buy sodium
and halogen lights are buying them for use on the Pacific Gas and
Electric Co. grid. He knows because the 110-volt lights he sells the
most of aren't compatible with diesel generators. Also, the manager
said few people come in to buy a large number of lights.

He agreed that diesel pollution is most likely a problem, but added
that he suspects gas stations pose an equal or greater risk. Further,
he pointed at timber companies' widespread use of diesel as an
additive to herbicides, which are legally sprayed over thousands of
acres of timber cuts each year. That spraying is done under specific
guidelines, but has caused concern in some communities.

The source said he can't imagine pot grows posing the same
problem.

"It would be hard to believe that it's as big of a problem as they
would want it to seem," he said. "But is the problem out there? Yeah."

Hands Full

Paul Hagen, Humboldt County deputy district attorney and environmental
circuit prosecutor, said the problem, which he suspects is severe,
really requires more investigative resources.

"It's my strong feeling, from anecdotes over time, that the problem is
chronic, systemic and widespread," Hagen said. "If the true extent of
contamination from generators were known, the public would be appalled."

On that end, the county's handful of drug cops already have a huge
work load, and the environmental investigations that stem from their
first duty are just a byproduct.

Hagen said it is difficult to get perpetrators to clean up under
criminal statutes. He said the District Attorney's Office can
prosecute for the disposal of toxic substances, but can't order a
cleanup of the mess. That's up to a judge. And the district attorney
has no authority under the California Superfund Law -- that's the
domain of the Department of Toxic Substances Control.

But cleanup demands can be written into probation terms, as Deputy
District Attorney Worth Dikeman is doing in one case not yet resolved.
In the terms are demands that the perpetrator contact the Department
of Toxic Substances Control, environmental health and the regional
water board to investigate and fix the contamination. The agencies
must also be reimbursed for their costs.

As Hagen pointed out, one of the main problems in making irresponsible
growers responsible is a lack of resources. At a time when the state
budget is on life support and the county is making heavy cuts and
layoffs, it's difficult to see how effective -- on a large scale --
prosecution of environmental crimes related to indoor grows may be.

If, as environmental health's Cox suggests, education has gone a long
way, perhaps the problem will begin to fade, especially if prosecutors
are nudging them on, securing stiff penalties in the cases they can
get their hands on.