Supervisors, can you hear us now?

Bad Government, Cannabis Issues, Groundwater, News / April 12, 2021

“Protecting water resources should be the No. 1 goal of the Board of Supervisors. It is key to our future.”

Press Democrat is listening to the citizens of the county who have legitimate concerns how our government is operating and who for…..

Our scarce water

EDITOR: Given the drought, we wonder how the Board of Supervisors can even contemplate a cannabis ordinance opening more acreage to cannabis cultivation than is currently planted in wine grapes. According to a study from Napa County, cannabis uses over six times more water than vineyards.

This year in Santa Rosa, we have received only a little over 50% of average rainfall. Our reservoirs are low, and south county farmers are trucking in water. Residents wells are going dry in the Two Rock area.

Residents are being told to limit water use. Protecting water resources should be the No. 1 goal of the Board of Supervisors. It is key to our future.

(name withheld for privacy)

Cannabis rules

EDITOR: I’m amazed at the apparent love our local governments have for cannabis. Not for their personal use, of course, but for the whole industry: cultivators, processors, dispensary builders and owners.

The most recent demonstration of their willingness to bend over backward for cannabis is the proposed county ordinance that would allow expansion of land use for all aspects of the cannabis industry. Project approvals would become “ministerial,” that is, by a planning employee’s decision, unannounced to the public by hearings and environmental reviews that normally alert neighbors to coming changes near them.

Unstudied questions about water usage would not be considered, either project-by-project or in a cumulative way, relating to total water usage in this drought-prone county. Also unstudied would be neighborhood nuisance effects. Law enforcement doesn’t yet have instruments for testing drivers impaired by being stoned, as alcohol use can be assessed.

I understand this new profitmaking industry pleases a lot of potential investors, local entrepreneurs and landowners. But at what cost to all people of the county? Please tell your supervisors that they should reconsider such widespread expansion of this nonessential industry.

Name withheld for privacy

Santa Rosa

Supervisors, can you hear us now?