Carpinteria Pot Wars: A Dutch Clean-Air Technology Gives Residents Some Hope
Expensive Carbon Filters Can ‘Scrub’ the Stink of Greenhouse Cannabis, but How Many Growers Will Install Them?
Paul Ekstrom, a retired firefighter in Carpinteria, says he and his wife, Linda, have been living a happier life for the past few months, largely free from the pungent smell of pot that drove them indoors with the windows shut every day.
That’s because earlier this year, Ed Van Wingerden, owner of the 11-acre Ever-Bloom cannabis greenhouse operation at 4701 Foothill Road, just 65 feet from the Ekstroms’ home on Manzanita Street, installed more than 100 carbon filters from the Netherlands to clean up the cannabis odors.
A study released this month by SCS Engineers, a Santa Maria consulting firm, shows that on average, the filters or “scrubbers” developed by the Envinity Group, a Dutch firm, can eliminate 84 percent of the “skunky” smell of cannabis before it escapes through the greenhouse roof vents.
