[Local weed enthusiast Emily Hobelmann returns with another edition of your Lost Coast Outpost’s new marijuana column On the Pot. If you missed last week’s, read it here. -AG]

Our local water ways are flowin’ low, and you can play the blame game all day long as to why. Just pick a reason, any reason, like global weirding, the Potter Valley Project and other, similarly infamous “projects“, logging, the changing forest landscape, population growth, agriculture, or Humboldt’s red-headed step child of a money mill — marijuana grows.

Go ahead, blame one reason or blame any combination thereof, but no matter how you look at it, low flows mean the fish species are in danger. Again.

Now let’s talk Eel River.

Dana Stolzman, executive director of the Salmonid Restoration Federation, says that state and federal agencies are really concerned about the Eel because “the Eel River was thought to have the third largest fishery in California.” Those days are no more.

She goes on, “Right now the South Fork Eel River in particular is considered critical to the survival of what’s called the Southern Oregon-Northern California Coast Coho salmon population.”

The Coho is considered threatened, so governmental agencies are trying to figure out what actions can be taken to improve the likelihood of Coho recovery.

So, in defense of the fish, the state is cracking down on local folks for unauthorized water diversions.

That’s right, last month twenty-seven landowners in the China Creek area got certified letters from the California State Water Resources Control Board for potential violations of state water law.

The letters point to a fish kill on China Creek last fall (China Creek is a tributary via Redwood Creek to the South Fork Eel River), and so the state is starting an enforcement sweep to make sure the landowners are in compliance with state law around water diversion, appropriation and storage. The Department of Fish and Wildlife is involved in the enforcement too, and if recipients don’t comply within the given timeframe, they face some heavy penalties.

This Salmonid Restoration Federation and Friends of the Eel River brochure breaks it down: “The State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Rights has notified landowners that diverting water without complying with State water rights law could lead to enforcement action and fines of up to $1,000 plus $500 a day.”

Note that the law has been on the books since the 1960s, and that landowners across the state are required to comply. The bulk of rural landowners in Humboldt County are not in compliance.

More: “Compliance with State water law requires filing forms and acquiring permits when needed. The benefits are ensuring your homestead’s water security and your land’s value, while protecting our region’s vital fisheries and wildlife.”

(Note: This brochure will be available at local garden supply stores.)

To comply, landowners have to figure out what forms to file and what permits to acquire, and whether such forms or permits are even needed. Landowners don’t have to wait for an enforcement action to comply; nay, the state water people and our local environmental advocacy groups are encouraging all rural landowners to comply now — voluntarily.

Compliance, however, might cause people some stress and confusion, but there are plenty of folks that want to help, like the SRF and FOER. They hosted a water rights educational forum in Briceland last Thursday to help people get their sea legs with this process.

The meeting featured attendees and panelists getting into the nitty gritty of diversions, appropriations, riparian rights, catchment systems, storage ponds and tanks and also the filing processes, property visits and penalties.

KMUD is all over this. They should have audio of the forum up on their website sometime today, and you can browse their archives for the July 7th edition of Cannabis Consciousness and the June 5th edition of Civil Liberties Hour for interviews and in-depth commentary on the debacle.

Naturally, this issue is contentious — water issues are contentious everywhere. But, to some, with this enforcement, it might appear that the state is lashing out at individual landowners with less political clout when upstream on the Eel there are clearly much bigger fish to fry (pardon the pun) like Caltrans and its plot to drain Little Lake Valley or the PVP.

Regardless, it behooves rural land dwellers to dial in their water diversion, catchment and storage systems. It’s all about self-sufficiency, safety and a reliable supply, and the friendly eco groups know all about equipment and proper timing of diversions, and also about how much water people should store to get through the dry seasons.

But, to the pot point — if a rural landowner is growing a bunch of weed, they may need more water than your average homesteaders. Indeed, growers that are really blowin’ it up may need so much water as to be causing harm to waterways and wildlife.

The Northcoast Regional Water Quality Control Board has plenty to say about that there issue in this handy fact sheet. With respect to following the law around water use, the sheet says that “growers are required to follow the same rules as every other industry.” Industries following rules, eh? Wait a second…

An audience member at last Thursday’s water rights forum addressed the pot-growing “elephant in the room” in a most righteous way. He said, “there’s too many people growing too much weed all over the place — that’s the problem.”

Then he urged his peers “to stand up to our neighbors that are pushing the envelope, stand up to your neighbors and tell them that you don’t approve.”

Landowners also have the option of submitting anonymous complaints about their neighbors.

But that dude’s got a point. Between the light deprivation crops, the non-stop, year-round indoor crops and the massive, full-sun outdoor crops — all that growing amounts to hella water usage. If pot-growing landowners do want to get in compliance with state water law but they are concerned about exposing themselves, theoretically, they needn’t stress.

“Fish and Wildlife, they’re not after the pot,” says Tom Grover, a Southern Humboldt-based community activist. “What they’re after is to save the fish.”

This is all about saving the fish.

One part of SoHum resident Mikal Jakubal’s water storage system at his nursery in Briceland. It holds 30,000 gallons.

The other part of Jakubal’s water storage system — a large, lined rainwater collection pond that holds a couple hundred thousand gallons of water.