Why is Permit Sonoma focused on expediting cannabis approvals while lacking fundamental baseline water availability data?

Why is Permit Sonoma expediting project approvals for the new cannabis industry, often by-passing required water studies, despite known water demand of 1 million gallons/acre/year? 

In March, 2022 Permit Sonoma announced that it will spend $1M to hire new staff focused on expediting cannabis industry permits. Unlike other California counties that have cultivation acreage caps, currently in Sonoma County there is no cap on the amount of the new cannabis industry’s water-intensive product. 

A more responsible County investment would be to update water availability models and complete the required baseline analyses of water supply.  For water availability, the Baseline should quantify current water supplies, accounting for climate change, as well as existing and mandated residential, industrial, and wine industry demands. And, then set caps for new high-water demand projects. 

Sonoma County has already issued about 100 multi-tenant ministerial permits, many resulting with an acre or more of cultivation, without required project-specific water availability studies.  Currently, the state Department of Cannabis Control has intervened to ensure required water studies identify protections for groundwater resources and adjacent wells on these projects, but they continue to operate in the mean time.

In addition, applications in water scarce areas are not holding projects to the standard that they “…must have on site water supply source adequate to meet all onsite uses on a sustainable basis.” Instead projects are only required to demonstrate that there is enough water to meet the project's own needs with no regard for impacts on the groundwater basin, neighboring wells and properties or the broader ecosystem.

Even in impaired watersheds, applications that cannot prove a sustainable supply of groundwater are encouraged to rely on rainwater catchment basins. Catchment basin supply does not come close to meeting the known cannabis demand of 1 million gallons/ acre/year.  And, the extent to which catchment basins lined with impermeable liners impede groundwater recharge and contribute to potential dewatering of small groundwater deposits, relied on by downhill wells, in water scarce areas is unknown.  

At the March 10^th Drought workshop, State agencies expressed concern that existing groundwater pumping is dewatering streams in impaired watersheds. Despite these concerns, cannabis operations are being allowed to operate in highly sensitive water sheds like Mark West and Mill Creek, either as unpermitted grows or moving through the approval process based on unrealistic or unsubstantiated water availability analyses. 

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