Remote surveillance trailer in Sutter, CA

From the west end of the unincorporated town of Sutter wafts a strong smell, familiar to many and scorned by some.

In recent weeks the odor from a nearby hemp grow, which smells just like marijuana, has subsumed parts of the small town that borders farm land surrounding the Sutter Buttes, and even lingered in the air outside of the town’s high school.

The smell inundating parts of the Sutter County town as its harvest neared is one way in which the maturing hemp and marijuana industries in California have created unintended, and subsequently unplanned for, consequences.

“It’s like there’s a skunk in your backyard spraying constantly,” said Kathy Ripley, Sutter resident.

Local regulations and restrictions on hemp and marijuana can vary greatly between county and city borders throughout California. Large-scale marijuana grows are not permitted in Sutter County, but farming hemp — a very similar plant but different commodity — is allowed. Meanwhile, in neighboring Yuba County, large hemp grows are outright banned.

The reoccurring odor is familiar to the small town of Sutter as it is to other pockets of the country where people have voiced similar complaints about nearby hemp and marijuana farms, as reported by various media outlets.

The smell, which travels from a relatively small hemp field beside Pass Road northwest of town, prompted backlash from residents who have complained about having the odor linger into their homes, stick to the insides of their cars and at times tag along with their clothing to work.

“You walk outside and it smacks you in the face,” Ripley said. “It’s not some aroma. People go outside and say, ‘What the hell is that?’”

Some residents don’t mind it, while others, particularly those closest to the source, have said the smell is almost unbearable and fear the damage it could cause to their property values, health and quality of life.

The smell had barely reached town early one morning last week on Butte Avenue in Sutter, a street near the hemp grow. But as Don Thibodeau raised his garage door, a strong smell of pot still lingered inside from the night before.

“Last night, watching the ball game, we had to shut the house all up,” Thibodeau said. “I have two $500 air purifiers in my house so we can breathe.”

At the same time, not far from his home, several workers in the small hemp field harvested from the low-to-the-ground plants. In less than an hour the smell had traveled back into the neighborhood.

“It sticks in my craw, the smell,” Thibodeau said.

The state registry shows licensed hemp growers in the county but does not show the location of where they are growing.

California’s embrace of recreational marijuana, and federal legalization of hemp farming, has put a number of decisions on how to enforce the growth, processing and sale of the cash crops on local governments.

“It’s really, truly a local issue,” said Hilary Bricken, corporate and regulatory cannabis and hemp lawyer.

The hemp issue in Sutter first arose during a 2020 harvest, prompting the creation of a county ordinance in early 2021 that set guidelines and fees in place for hemp growers. Until this year, Sutter residents said that the smell hadn’t returned.

“There were buffers initiated and those buffers were meant to keep the hemp from sensitive receptors,” said Nicolas Oliver, assistant agricultural commissioner.

The buffers are restrictions keeping hemp grows 1,000 feet away from “sensitive receptors,” which include hospitals, churches and schools, and 500 feet away from neighboring homes.

In addition to creating buffers, the county also added fees for hemp growers to cover costs the county incurs.

Overseeing registration and monitoring of hemp production in the county, as required by the state, has cost the agricultural commissioner’s office money each year. Oliver said the loss has been as high as $125,000 before the ordinance and more than $50,000 each of the two years the ordinance has been in effect.

“Every year we’ve run the program we’ve been operating in a shortfall,” he said.

The state effectively requires counties to issue licenses to hemp growers. Counties then have a series of checks to ensure that the hemp plants meet certain requirements, such as testing below THC levels of 0.3% and being grown outside of buffer zones.

But even with buffers in place, neighbors in Sutter now complain that the smell drifts far beyond those distances, evidenced by the smell reaching the town’s high school.

“Our high school smells horrible,” said Mike Ziegenmeyer, Sutter County supervisor who represents and lives in Sutter. “During a football game you smell the stench of hemp. I can’t support that.”

That’s where county officials come in, including Ziegenmeyer, who said the county should look at how to solve the recent issues, including whether to ban hemp farming.

“I believe we need to have that discussion,” he said.

He said the Yuba-Sutter Farm Bureau would discuss the hemp issues at a future meeting and that supervisors would discuss the topic after that.

“It is an ag commodity and I think we have to respectfully talk about it with the farm bureau and look at the positives and negatives,” he said.

In California, the Department of Cannabis Control regulates marijuana and the Department of Food and Agriculture oversees hemp. But many of the decisions about whether to permit large-scale grows, dispensaries and added restrictions of the marijuana and hemp industries beyond what the state requires falls on local governments.

Issues of local control have arisen over cannabis more often than hemp, Bricken said, such as allowing delivery between cities and whether to permit consumption lounges.

As for odor, that’s for locals to decide.

“If they tried to control odor levels and mitigation, they might be overstepping their authority anyways and getting into the constitutional obligation of cities and counties to set these limits,” Bricken said of the state.

That’s because managing odor, among other health, environment and safety impacts, are typically left for local governments to control, she said.

“The state typically doesn’t want to touch those things essentially to avoid jurisdiction friction with local governments,” she added.

On a local level, that can present challenges.

“What we like at the department level is clean lines to enforce,” said Oliver, of the county’s agriculture office. “Straight lines that are easily communicated, that are easily understood — that’s been a challenge with the industrial hemp program.”

The simplest solutions for counties are to stick with the state’s requirements or put in place a ban, Oliver said. The third option, creating an ordinance to allow hemp grows with restrictions, puts hemp growers — who want the fewest barriers — and residents — who may want the most restrictions — at odds.

“We’re sort of the umpire, if you will, and someone else has to tell us what the strike zone is that we’re enforcing,” Oliver said.

This story was originally published October 24, 2024, 5:00 AM.

CORRECTION: Nicolas Oliver is Sutter County’s assistant agricultural commissioner. His first name was misspelled in an earlier version of the story.

Corrected Oct 24, 2024

The Sacramento Bee

916-321-1019

Jake Goodrick covers Sutter County for The Sacramento Bee as part of the California Local News Fellowship Program through UC Berkeley. He previously reported and edited for the Gillette News Record in northeast Wyoming.