Joint Report to the Legislature on the Department of Fish and Wildlife and State Water Resources Control Board pilot project to address the Environmental Impacts of Cannabis Cultivation (Watershed Enforcement Team)

This report is in response to the 2014-2015 Supplemental Report for item 3600-001-0001-Department of Fish and Wildlife (Department or CDFW), which provides the following directive:

“The Department of Finance shall report, on behalf of the Marijuana Task Force, on or before January 10, 2015, to the Assembly and Senate budget committees, on its recommendations to require marijuana producers growing under Proposition 215 protections, to comply with regular permitting, and with any need for regulatory changes to allow law enforcement to accompany regulators for site visits.”

In this report, the Department and the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board)1 provide an overview of the joint pilot project to address environmental degradation resulting from marijuana cultivation, a discussion of the agencies’ interaction with other state agencies, and a discussion of the program’s outcomes between August 2014 and February 1, 2015. This report also describes that the CDFW and the Water Board intend to require that marijuana producers growing on private lands comply with CDFW’s and the Water Boards’ existing and soon-to-be adopted permitting programs and current environmental protection laws. There is no need for a regulatory change that would allow law enforcement to accompany regulators on site visits as that authority currently exists.