Cannabis leaves are grown in the greenhouse of Autumn Brands in Carpinteria. Photograph by Katherine Barnes/KCRW.
Some people like the smell of fresh flower buds. But for people who live on Carpinteria Highway 192 (informally known as "marijuana lane"), the smell has become annoying.
Five years ago, California voters legalized recreational marijuana. Since then, the cannabis industry has flourished in Carpinteria as growers quickly converted the greenhouses previously used for the city's booming cut flower industry into more than 165 acres of cannabis, including seedling nurseries and processing space.
"These people will be more like sleepwalkers. We have a strawberry banana. So everyone will have a slightly different smell," said Autumn Shelton, who grows 4 acres of marijuana for her company Autumn Brands in the Carpinteria greenhouse. "We even have a product called GMO, which stands for garlic, mushrooms and onions. It's a rather fashionable smell, but it's very popular."
Over the years, this smell has separated Carpinteria. At the city council meeting, residents complained that they could not open the windows of their homes without the smell. Growers accuse residents of wrongly blaming weeds for their asthma and other health problems.
But Carpinterians do more than just point fingers. Over the years, they have made some changes.
"This is our current odor elimination system, the Bayer Scientific gas phase method," Sheldon said as he walked out of the greenhouse and pointed to a large plastic liquid bucket connected to a noisy machine.
Inside the bathtub is Ecosorb, a liquid solution that evaporates and is pumped through the perforated pipe distribution system around each greenhouse. When the marijuana slips out of the vent, it will absorb and neutralize the odor compounds in the marijuana. This technology is used in odor-like industries such as liquid waste treatment plants and meat processing facilities.
Autumn Brands uses gas phase technology to neutralize the smell of cannabis before it leaves the hotel. Photograph by Katherine Barnes/KCRW.
Carpinteria greenhouses where hemp grows usually have openings in the walls and roof to adjust the temperature, which makes controlling odors tricky. Photograph by Katherine Barnes/KCRW.
The installation of such deodorizing technology will greatly help Carpinteria reduce the odor. But the problem still exists.
According to data from the Santa Barbara County Department of Planning and Development, from September 2020 to September 2021, residents of Carpinteria filed 959 odor complaints, about two and a half complaints per day. And because of the way the county decree was written, these complaints were not resolved.
"Because of the smell, there is no law enforcement. Not in five years," said Rob Salomon, board member of the Santa Barbara County Responsible Cannabis Coalition.
His non-profit organization recently switched from prosecuting cannabis growers to trying to work with them. In August, the alliance signed an agreement with its former rival CARP Growers, an interest group representing the owners of 23 cannabis projects (these projects account for most of Carpinteria's cultivation).
Unlike county regulations, this agreement includes a quick response to odor complaints. According to the new plan, residents can complain to CARP Growers, and CARP Growers will find out the source of the smell. If the culprit is one of their member farms, the owner must make changes to their odor elimination system or they may be kicked out of the membership group.
If the growers insist that their transaction ends, the alliance agrees not to oppose or appeal any of their projects.
(From left to right): Peter Dugre represents CARP Growers, Autumn Shelton runs Autumn Brands and is a member of CARP Growers, Rob Salomon is a resident of Carpinteria and a member of the board of directors of the Santa Barbara County Responsible Cannabis Alliance. Photograph by Katherine Barnes/KCRW.
This is an example of two opposing groups joining forces to cut off the middleman—in this case, the slow bureaucracy of the county government.
But not all locals believe that this agreement will change things. On the one hand, apart from the press release, there is no public publicity. No one is very sure which number to call or why this process is better than complaining to the county. Second, the agreement requires the establishment of wind monitoring stations to identify each odor complaint, but these stations have not yet been up and running. Third, the new carbon scrubbing technology, which may be more effective than steam in eliminating odors, has fallen into a kinks in the supply chain.
"I appreciate the intention behind it. Ultimately, the evidence will be in the pudding, so to speak," said Maureen Claffey. Her family owns an avocado orchard next door to the hemp farm represented by CARP Growers, and she said the farm is still very good. Smelly.
Just like Solomon, she was tired of poor law enforcement in the county, but she didn't think the agreement had any practical significance. In fact, she thinks this kumbaya moment is a propaganda stunt orchestrated by wealthy cannabis growers.
"I think the public's attention span is short. If they see the good news of this public machine spinning, they think the problem has been solved. They are walking away. But in the end, nothing really improves," she said.
This is one of several greenhouses owned by Autumn Brands. Photograph by Katherine Barnes/KCRW.
Claffey talked about smell and other issues at county and school board meetings, calling the steam technology toxic and criticizing the school district for accepting bribes from growers. She made enemies through her comments.
"I got attacked on Facebook. A friend of mine told me that because of my belief, my daughter can no longer play with their daughter. When I was on the school board, I was attacked on a large scale," she Say.
She and her family decided to move away from their farm.
"Our solution is to leave," she said. "We left Carpinteria, we left the school district. I just don't feel safe."
So, after five years of odor elimination technology worth millions of dollars and more than 1,000 complaints from residents, Carpinteria still has not found a way to coexist peacefully with the greenhouses that have made the city a cannabis powerhouse.
But Sheldon and Solomon were hopeful. They said that most growers are committed to working with residents, responding to complaints in a timely manner, and testing the latest odor elimination technology.
"We will definitely solve this problem," Sheldon said, in another five years.
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