The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Prepare for the possibility of bizarre nose telescopes
By Olivia Lueckemeyer
An uptick in complaints about excessive odor originating from personal marijuana grow operations prompted several Gunnison County representatives to ask the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) at a meeting earlier this week if they should begin pursuing possible solutions.
The consensus was that, yes, the county should investigate ways to curb the issue, but the question of “how” to regulate something as subjective as odor was unanimously perceived as a challenge.
Community development director Russ Forrest explained that the problem manifested itself after complaints from residents across the county uncovered a phenomenon of personal grow operations producing high levels of odor. Because of the disparity in the laws governing commercial versus personal grows, personal grow operations are not required to control odor at the same level as commercial operations. However, many of these so-called “personal” grows are beginning to look a lot like commercial operations, due to a loophole in the law that results in the skirting of the “six plant per person” rule.
County undersheriff Randy Barnes said the law is flimsy when it comes to who can grow plants where. Consequently, in some instances, significantly more than six plants are being grown under one roof, because homeowners or renters are employing people to work their personal grow operations, and as payment, each of those employees is given six plants. As a result, very quickly the numbers begin to multiply.
Barnes referenced an example of a personal grow operation on Candlelight Lane in Gunnison which housed over 300 “legal” plants, since three of the people living in the home were medical marijuana providers – allowed under Colorado law up to 99 plants – who also housed the plants of their numerous employees.
“There were three providers in this specific house, but then they had another seven people coming in to work it, and as payment, they got six plants,” Barnes explained.
According to Barnes, in these instances, his hands are tied.
“Some of the problems we are dealing with in law enforcement is the marijuana industry, throughout legislation, has basically written any enforcement out of law enforcement,” Barnes explained. “We can come up and knock and talk and see who is living there and can look at their plants, but it’s not just as simple as having six plants.”
Barnes reported that as soon as the grow season begins in April and May, the sheriff’s office receives two or three calls per day from citizens complaining about odor.
“We get it from all over the county, and my response is that we are working on it,” Barnes said. “The problem is we only have a short window of grow season, so by the time we get anything through community development, the plants are gone and everybody is moved out.”
After it was agreed upon by the board that this is clearly an issue, county attorney David Baumgarten referenced the Denver solution, which employs the use of a bizarre-looking nose telescope called the “Nasal Ranger,” a portable odor detecting and measuring instrument that can determine ambient odor “dilution-to-threshold ratios.” According to Gizmodo.com, if a Denver police officer using the Nasal Ranger can detect an odor beyond the permitted 8:1 “clean-to-stinky” ratio, a fine of up to $2,000 can be imposed.
The device intrigued BOCC chairperson Paula Swenson, who noted that it could provide a way to objectively measure odor, which at certain levels could be classified as a public nuisance within the county’s current regulations.
“Then we could just say, if it smells across property lines, and we get a Nasal Ranger, it becomes a public nuisance,” Swenson suggested.
Commissioner Jonathan Houck was concerned about the threshold for what should be considered an offensive odor. He worried that the regulation of one particular odor might result in a slippery slope where neighbors are quarreling over odors originating from compost piles, Glade plug-ins, and other stinky devices.
Forrest replied that these are all issues that should be considered in a policy discussion. He noted that Denver’s odor regulations include all smells, from perfumes to barbeque smoke to marijuana; however, he didn’t think the county should be as inclusive in its own regulatory structure.
“Once we looked at that, it seemed like a recipe for putting us in the middle of conflicts with neighbors,” Forrest said. “So before you create [a regulatory structure], you have to think about that.”
Commissioner Phil Chamberland agreed that an objective method to measure odor was the best solution, so that the regulation couldn’t be used to impinge on the rights of legal growers.
“I want a threshold that is not subjective, so that someone can’t abuse the guy who is only growing six plants,” Chamberland said.
“It seems once again that there is always a loophole, and this seems to be another loophole in the law so that 300, 400, 500 plants can be grown somewhere without going through the regulatory processes that we have in place to control odor so that it is not bothersome to neighbors,” Swenson said. “It’s not about the guy who has six plants in his house. It’s the guy who is trying to run a commercial operation without going through the proper channels.”
The board agreed wholeheartedly that Forrest and Baumgarten should begin to look into solutions for what is obviously a growing issue, and report back with their findings.
“Go forth and figure something out,” Swenson said. “I want to see a Nasal Ranger!”
