Category: Environmental

Toxic Waste From Illegal Marijuana Farms Is Polluting California Forests

The U.S. Forest Service has reported that national forests in California are being polluted by the residue of numerous illegal marijuana grows. The federal agency estimates that thousands of acres of forest have been contaminated by pollutants, with some sites becoming so toxic that people simply touching plants have been hospitalized.  According to ecologist Mourad Gabriel,…
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What’s That Smell? NY Times

Today, we’ve got a potent story from San Francisco bureau chief Thomas Fuller: A decade ago Marie and Surinder Uppal fulfilled what they considered their American dream: the construction of a two-story home next to vineyards in Sonoma County. But earlier this year, besieged by a mysterious, pungent odor, they wondered if they had made the…
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Dead Skunk’ Stench From Marijuana Farms Outrages Californians – NY Times

CARPINTERIA, Calif. — They call it fresh skunk, the odor cloud or sometimes just the stink. Mike Wondolowski often finds himself in the middle of it. He may be on the chaise longue on his patio, at his computer in the house, or tending to his orange and lemon trees in the garden when the…
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Report: Sonoma County’s natural resources worth billions

This is what the Supervisors don’t get. This is what they fail to understand, much less preserve. Our rural character.A recent report accompanying revisions to the cannabis ordinance stated that preservation of rural character was not a consideration. “The aesthetic benefit of the county’s working and natural lands has the highest value of any single…
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Illegal pot grows spread deadly pesticides, other hazards, despite change in law

The legalization of cannabis in California has done almost nothing to halt illegal marijuana growing by Mexican drug cartels, which are laying bare large swaths of national forest in California, poisoning wildlife, and siphoning precious water out of creeks and rivers, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said Tuesday. The situation is so dire that federal, state…
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