Perfect Place for Hemp/Cannabis
An idea to share:
Unregulated growing of hemp and cannabis throughout the County as proposed will cause not only conflicts with residential areas, but serious groundwater and streamflow impacts that will threaten the survival and reproduction of endangered salmon.
There is however a wonderful solution.
The City of Santa Rosa and the Regional Waste Water Treatment plant have acquired and leased hundreds of acres, well away from residential areas, for the disposal of treated waste water. These areas are ideal for hemp/cannabis production. Hemp is a huge consumer of irrigation water, particularly in the summer and early fall.
Cropping hemp on these lands already set aside for waste water disposal would increase the evapotranspiration of waste water and improve the effectiveness of the waste water treatment system. The City could lease the lands to interested farmers for a fair price and recover some of the cost of waste water treatment.
And no residential areas would be impacted.
Let’s get smart about using our waste water as a resource, earning some income for the City, and avoiding hemp’s unacceptable conflicts with residential areas and watersheds critical for the survival of salmon and our fishing industry.
R. Krauss