2/7/18
The Eureka City Council on Tuesday evening directed city staff to draft a letter supporting an appeal against a proposed cannabis manufacturing facility near the Mad River in the Glendale area.
“The city maintains water rights on the Mad River,” Eureka Public Works Director Brian Gerving said.
The proposed 5,000-square-foot volatile and nonvolatile cannabis manufacturing facility is on a Mercer-Fraser Company-owned parcel adjacent to Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District collection wells that supply water for about 88,000 residents around Humboldt Bay. A gravel extraction facility has been operating at the site for decades.
In 2016 MCMP Humboldt, LLC — a business entity associated with Mercer-Fraser, Gerving said — submitted an application to the county to rezone the site of the proposed project from “agriculture general” to “heavy industrial with a qualified combining zone,” which included a special permit to develop and operate a cannabis manufacturing facility.
“It’s my opinion that we can’t take chances with 88,000 peoples’ drinking water supply,” Councilman Austin Allison said.
“This is too great of a risk for us to be willing to take,” Councilwoman Kim Bergel said.
“When it comes to our water, we want to be involved,” Councilwoman Heidi Messner said.
