Redheaded blackbelt blogger, Kym has a great post - an interview with Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, laying out the environmental damage caused by pot grows, diesel and oil contamination...
As I'm reading it, all I can think of is the disconnect between all the noise we hear from "Humboldt Watershed Council" and "Baykeeper" and Gallegos, all the writhing of hands over environmental damage caused by their favorite targets (the ones with money), and the absolutely deafening silence when it comes to this subject.
Nothing on Steve Schectman/Hedlund/Vilica LLC/Paradise Palms LLC's bulldozing plateaus, carving out roads - every time a big dope grow is revealed, not a peep. Not one.
Kym's talking about the enormous amounts of oil used by a 5000 marijuana plant underground facility that was powered by two 400 kw generators, and how that oil is disposed of, and what that means for the Eel River.
Where are those champions of the environment?
I think that the problem is that it is hard too pin down someone. Marijuana is illegal and the growers are not easy to define. The problem growers are a small minority. So who do the local environment activists go after. The targets are shadows.
ReplyDeleteBut, we have to speak up. I grew up dumping used oil on the ground. Through other people speaking up, I began to listen and make changes. Hopefully, if we keep the dialog open, changes will start to happen.
I think the local environmentalist organizations will join in when there seems somewhere to go--something to do.
Right now, I'm pointing out the emperor hasn't any clothes. If enough people acknowledge the problem, Maybe we can come up with some solutions.
I thought you did a great job, Kym. Those statistics are hard to ignore.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if people will listen, Steve Lewis has been pointing out for YEARS that the amount of eco damage done by homesteaders and pot growers vastly exceeds that of a few Palco workers on the ground, but that point wasn't politically correct. He was focused more on the roads and the diesel - but grows of this size - it's hard to even imagine.
And some big growers ARE known - Schectman/Hedlund/Vilica etc is certainly an example of that... they even got caught, but do you think Gallegos will go after them? Do you think he should? We're talking about the shill candidate who COULD have replaced Gallegos in the Recall being an alleged MAJOR pot grower, if anyone ever pierces the LLC veils.
I just can't shake the disconnect. It's surreal.
Again, great post! I always enjoy your stuff. I look forward to the rest of the story.
Before the indoor grows with the diesel generators it was the outdoor grows with all the fertilizer and rat poison. God only knows how much of that was washed down into the Eel River in the late 70's, 80's, and early 90's ??? The roads they cut, the quadrunner trails and so on. It is the marijuana growers that have screwed up the Eel River, not to mention the entire county.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the bust Allman was talking about was the Kite Finds the Feather bust? Kinda sounded similar.
ReplyDeleteYeah - I gad a post up on that one m I'll put up a link.
ReplyDeleteBeowolf, you're following this - is there any truth to the talk that Hedlund's court date was postponed, and that kite missed his court date and ran?
Schectman certainly has been keeping a low profile lately.
ReplyDeleteWas Josh sentenced to any prison time, or did the $270,000 forfeiture buy him out of that?
What ever happened on Lonetree's arrest in Garberville? The one were he was drunk driving and spinning dounuts on some of the green's?
I do believe kite missed his court date and is in the wind.
Hedlund's court dates are posted on Judge LowelI Jensen's calendar on the web; his sentencing has been postponed multiple times. I don't know about Kite running. . . I can't find any court dates on the web for him though.
ReplyDeleteCalendar
ReplyDelete10:00 AM (r)10:00AM CRIMINAL MATTER-VACATED-TO 6/20
CR06-00346 United States v Joshua Hedlund
[E-filing case]
SENTENCING-VACATED-TO 6/20
Perhaps Kite has a real name?