Lo v. County of Siskiyou

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedJune 15, 2021
Docket2:21-cv-00999
StatusUnknown

This text of Lo v. County of Siskiyou (Lo v. County of Siskiyou) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lo v. County of Siskiyou, (E.D. Cal. 2021).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 Dilevon Lo, et al., No. 2:21-cv-00999-KJM-DMC 12 Plaintiffs, ORDER 13 v. 14 County of Siskiyou, et al., IS Defendants. 16 17 Siskiyou County, California recently passed several ordinances and resolutions intended 18 | to root out illegal and water-intensive cannabis cultivation during a severe drought. The plaintiffs 19 | in this lawsuit claim the drought is a pretext. In reality, they allege, the County intends to expel a 20 | disfavored community of Asian Americans by cutting off its only water supply. They move for a 21 | temporary restraining order barring the County from enforcing its ordinances until the court can 22 | hear and decide a more formal motion for temporary injunctive relief. 23 Although the plaintiffs have advanced concerning claims of racial discrimination, they 24 | have not shown that they, as opposed to someone else, will likely suffer an irreparable injury if 25 | the court does not immediately forbid the County from enforcing the disputed ordinances. Nor 26 | have the plaintiffs proven an immediate injunction would serve the broader public interests at 27 | stake here. The motion is denied, as explained in more detail below.

1 I. BACKGROUND 2 The plaintiffs challenge three County ordinances. The first is an urgency ordinance the 3 County adopted on August 4, 2020. See Siskiyou Cty. Ord. No. 20-13 (Aug. 4, 2020), Lawrence 4 Decl. Ex. A, ECF No. 4-2. According to that ordinance, the Board of Supervisors found “the 5 extraction and discharge of groundwater” in the County “for use in cultivating cannabis” was 6 “inconsistent with” the California Constitution and the California Water Code because the County 7 was “in a state of drought” or “extreme drought.” Id. § 1.I–J. “Cannabis is a water-intensive 8 crop,” the ordinance explains, and “thousands of illegal Cannabis Cultivation sites” had been 9 established within the County. Id. § 1.L–M. Officers had also seen “large quantities of 10 groundwater being extracted from local wells and then delivered in water trucks to illegal 11 Cannabis Cultivation sites.” Id. § 1.N. The County estimated three million gallons of water was 12 used every day to grow cannabis within its borders. Id. ¶ 1.O. For these reasons, the County 13 added several prohibitions to its municipal code: 14 (a) No person or entity shall engage in the act of wasting or unreasonably using 15 groundwater by extracting and discharging groundwater underlying Siskiyou 16 County for use in cultivating cannabis in violation of Chapter 14 or Chapter 15 of 17 Title 10 of the Siskiyou County Code. 18 (b) No person or entity shall permit the existence of any public nuisances, as defined 19 in this Article, to exist on property in his or her ownership or possession and control. 20 (c) No person shall knowingly use water extracted in violation of this section. 21 Id. § 3 (amending Siskiyou Cty. Code § 3-13.702). Although these provisions were originally 22 passed under rules that apply to urgent circumstances, the County is now enforcing the ordinance 23 on a more permanent basis. See Opp’n at 5 n.2, ECF No. 7. 24 The County adopted the second challenged ordinance several months later, on May 4, 25 2021. See Siskiyou Cty. Ord. No. 21-07 (May 4, 2021), Lawrence Decl. Ex. B, ECF No. 4-2. It 26 passed this ordinance on an urgent basis, and included many similar findings about droughts, the 27 depletion of groundwater, and illegal cannabis cultivation. See id. § 1. The Board of Supervisors 28 also described “complaints” about “land use violations and undesirable effects on groundwater 29 resources and local wells.” Id. § 1.N. And again, according to the ordinance, officers had seen 1 trucks delivering groundwater to “illegal cannabis cultivation sites.” Id. § 1.O. The Sheriff had 2 updated his “estimates of the water expended daily on illicit cannabis production.” Id. § 1.Q. 3 Now he believed the total was almost ten million gallons per day. Id. The second ordinance also 4 adds several provisions to the County Code. These provisions require an administrative permit 5 whenever groundwater is extracted for use on a different parcel from the extraction site, subject to 6 several exceptions, including for “emergency services.” See id. § 3 (amending Siskiyou Cty. 7 Code § 3.5-13.102). The County can issue permits only after review by several County 8 departments, including Community Development. Id. (amending Siskiyou Cty. Code § 3.5- 9 13.103). Violations are punishable by fines and injunctions. See id. § 6 (amending Siskiyou Cty. 10 Code § 3-13.601). 11 The County adopted the third challenged ordinance on the same day as the second: May 4, 12 2021. See Siskiyou Cty. Ord. No. 21-08 (May 4, 2021), Lawrence Decl. Ex. C, ECF No. 4-2. 13 After reiterating findings about droughts and illegal cannabis cultivation, see id. § 1, this 14 ordinance imposes restrictions on water trucks carrying more than 100 gallons on any “streets” 15 and “highways” the Board of Supervisors might specify, see id. § 3 (amending Siskiyou Cty. 16 Code § 3-4.1501). Violations are subject to fines and misdemeanor charges, which are 17 punishable under a separate provision by up to six months’ imprisonment under another code 18 section. See id. (amending Siskiyou Cty. Code § 3-4.1503, in turn citing § 1-2.01). The street- 19 specific prohibition does not apply to “emergency vehicles,” and the County’s Director of Public 20 Works has “direction” to issue a “special permit” exempting water trucks from these prohibitions 21 if an applicant shows “good cause” in writing. Id. (amending Siskiyou Cty. Code §§ 3-4.1504 to 22 1505). 23 On the same day the last two ordinances were adopted, the Board of Supervisors passed a 24 resolution listing the “streets” and “highways” where the street-specific prohibition of the last 25 ordinance would be enforced. See Resolution, Lawrence Decl. Ex. D, ECF No. 4-2.1 According 26 to a private investigator who submitted a declaration with the plaintiffs’ motion, these roads are

1 The resolution attached to the plaintiffs’ motion is neither numbered nor signed, but the County does not dispute that it went into effect on May 4, 2021. See Opp’n at 7. 1 all found in a part of the County where many Hmong refugees live, and one of the roads is the 2 only way into and out of the refugee community. See Szendrey Decl. ¶¶ 32–36, ECF No. 4-5. 3 These refugees first began arriving in Siskiyou County in about 2015, many from Minnesota. See 4 Mot. at 3 (citing Paige St. John, “Hmong Pot Growers in Siskiyou County Seeking Identity, 5 Profit—or Both,” L.A. Times (Sept. 10, 2017), Lawrence Decl. Ex. H, ECF No. 4-2); Szendrey 6 Decl. ¶ 17. 7 Some people in the Hmong community do illegally cultivate marijuana, a point on which 8 the parties seem to agree. See Mot. at 15; Siskiyou Cty. 2021 Annual Strategic Plan, Szendrey 9 Decl. Ex. B, ECF No. 4-5; Opp’n at 2–3. The plaintiffs claim, however, that the Hmong 10 community has been singled out by the County through the three ordinances reviewed above. See 11 Mot. at 15; Reply at 3, ECF No. 9. To explain, plaintiffs mapped the constellation of suspected 12 grow sites identified by the County in a recent report and the roads restricted by the County’s 13 recent ordinances. See Mot. at 15–16 (citing Szendrey Decl. Exs. B & C). The map identifies 14 six large areas where grow sites are concentrated. See Szendrey Decl. Ex. C. Four of these six 15 large areas are not near any roads where water trucks are prohibited. See id. According to the 16 County’s report, only a tiny fraction of the thousands of suspected grow sites within its borders 17 are located in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision, where a disproportionately large number of 18 people identify as Hmong. See id. Ex. B at 30–31;2 Neil Thao Decl. ¶ 3, ECF No. 4-8.

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Bluebook (online)
Lo v. County of Siskiyou, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lo-v-county-of-siskiyou-caed-2021.