All of Carpinteria’s 24 operational cannabis farms have installed multi-technology carbon filtration systems or an approved equivalent, while eight have their odor-abatement plans still under review by Santa Barbara County, a county spokesperson confirmed.
Kelsey Buttitta said that the remaining 16 operations have had their odor-abatement plans approved by the county.
The scrubbers, at $22,000 a pop and a recommended 10 per acre, “scrub” the smell of cannabis out of the air.
All vapor-phase systems, which for years released a “laundromat” smell into the air to mask the smell of cannabis, have been discontinued.
Eight cannabis farms earlier this year had requested more time to install carbon filters (or an approved equivalent) and runtime meters after the supervisors last year approved a compliance deadline of March 18.
But the Board of Supervisors — after years of complaints about Carpinteria cannabis odors — said that the farms have had enough time to deal with problem.
Going against a county staff recommendation, the board in March voted not to grant eight farms more time to install carbon scrubbers.
County staff worked to bring the remaining farms into compliance and began revoking business licenses for some.
By June, nine businesses that had their extension requests denied in March had filed appeals. Five later fully installed carbon scrubbers or an approved equivalent.
The sixth, Bronco Management, decided not to appeal. Its business licence was revoked earlier this year for not reporting gross earnings, per an update given to the Board of Supervisors earlier this month.
The remaining three operators, which had their business licenses revoked, appealed those revocations with the state Office of Administrative Hearings.
The office dismissed one revocation of Bosim 1628 Management LLC’s license.
The county withdrew its final two revocations of business licenses for K&G Flowers and G&K Produce in September, Buttitta said.
She did not provide a specific reason why their business license revocations were withdrawn.
Both are owned by Graham Farrar and Kyle Kazan, the operators of Glass House Brands. K&G Flowers and G&K Produce have operated in the Carpinteria Valley for eight years.
They had sued the county in June over the supervisors’ March denial of a request for more time to install carbon scrubbers, alleging that the county had deprived them of a fair hearing.
That case is still making its way through the court system, with a case-management conference set for January.
Bosim 1628 Management Co. had also sued the county in June, alleging that the board’s extension denial was not consistent with county code.
Superior Court records show all parties involved in that lawsuit are due back in court next in March.
As of September, there are also no new applications for cannabis operations in the Carpinteria Valley.
The valley now has 119.99 acres of cannabis cultivation within its boundaries; there is a limit of 134 acres.
Outside of the Valley, 1,417 acres are set aside for cannabis cultivation. As of July, there were 929.76 acres in use.
Those numbers include cultivation, not processing.
