Five years ago, after legalized weed, our farm and the surrounding Arroyo Paredon Watershed in Carpinteria became overrun by a single dominant stench: cannabis. Every day, a foul kaleidoscope of skunk, teenage body odor, burning rubber, and indescribable funk drifts across our farm at all hours, sometimes passing by on a breeze and sometimes lingering, thanks to Cresco Labs next door and other nearby Big Cannabis operations.
But the smell is no longer my primary concern. Five years into living in the Cannabis Zone in Carpinteria, I am laser focused on environmental degradation being caused by the pot operations. That’s why I’ve started Save the Arroyo Paredon Watershed, a creek protection and advocacy group.
I am worried about what is happening to the federally endangered steelhead and tidewater gobi in Arroyo Paredon Creek when exposed to cannabis fumes, and aerosol chemicals (odor deodorizers, pesticides, fungicides, and more) 24/7. How does having so much of this new industry so near the creek and ocean change the habitat for the ecologically sensitive plants and animals found there? And what about the ocean animals, subjected to the air and water running off into the Pacific?