Over the last several years, the trend in California has been for marijuana growers to move their operations from the High Sierra forests to lower elevation foothill and valley locations to take advantage of better climatic, soil, and overall growing conditions. This has resulted in significant, additional environmental and water resource related concerns over Northern California watersheds, due to potentially increased pollution in the local, regional, and state water supplies through increased soil erosion, and nutrient and pesticide laden runoff. Given the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) jurisdiction over waste discharges, the development of efficient tools that accurately and efficiently identify and characterize grow sites was desired. This resulted in the development of the Cannabis Identification and Prioritization System (CIPS). CIPS enables SWRCB and other stakeholders to identify priority water quality concerns by ranking those watersheds where marijuana grows pose the highest threats to water quality. The goals for the CIPS solution include - a) Accurately identify marijuana grow locations and characteristics, b) Utilize the Water Boards’ ArcGIS platform, c) Develop user interfaces that enable the Water Boards and other agency end-users to access CIPS, assess conditions, and establish priorities for mitigation, and d) Scalable, both in terms of the geographic extent, and number of end-users accessing the system.
