Group Hopes to Shape Legal Cannabis Water Standards

In this week’s Greenhouse Grower “First Read” enewsletter, we ran an item detailing Resource Innovation Institute’s (RII) cannabis water working group project.

The group, made up of experts in multiple fields and disciplines (including some heavy hitters on the irrigation tech side of the horticulture industry such as Grodan, Argus, and Dramm), is hoping to establish water usage and water quality benchmarks for legal cannabis growers, regardless of growing style.

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The goal is to present its findings to the industry at-large in December at the annual MJBizCon Convention in Las Vegas.

Derek Smith heads up the project as RII’s Executive Director. Smith recently told Greenhouse Grower that it was one much bandied about statistic about water usage in cannabis production that inspired the institute to take on water benchmarking. The group has already released similar reports on HVAC and LED lighting usage in cannabis production, as well as its CannabisPowerScore sustainability certification index for cultivators.

“There are some water usage statistics out there based on very limited models derived from the old illegal days; the one that sticks out the most for me is an old California Department of Fish and Wildlife statistic that says ‘cannabis uses 6 gallons of water per plant, per day’,” Smith explains. “Every piece of isolated data I’ve ever looked at is more in the neighborhood of a gallon or less (per day).”

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The water working group hopes to address this misconception of water usage in cannabis with data and scientific standardization, including coming up with a more accurate method to measure or benchmark a grower’s water usage.

“We don’t believe measuring on a per-plant basis is the best representation of water use,” Smith adds. “We think it’s more appropriate to report the gallons of water applied per square foot of flowering canopy. Let’s evolve the way we report (water use) and, ultimately, we want to help set and establish standards and effective policies and procedures. It starts with good quality data that is peer-reviewed and captured from a variety of sources.”

Smith and Co. have already convened what he calls “a very functional” technical advisory council, which includes legal cannabis cultivators, government officials, and water utility company representatives, as well as representation from water technology manufacturers.

“This is our first step into the subject of water,” Smith notes, adding that the group has a solid track record of engaging stakeholders already from its HVAC, Lighting, and Energy working groups.

“The output of the working group, a report we’ll call ‘The Cannabis Water Report,’ will result in research findings that we’ll publish by the end of the year, hopefully in time for MJBizCon in Las Vegas, assuming that event even happens this year,” Smith says. “We just kicked it off last Friday. We had a great meeting and we brought on New Frontier Data as our data partner and the Berkley Cannabis Research Center at UC Berkley.”

For the greenhouse cannabis water use benchmarks specifically, the group will be leaning heavily on the expertise of council-member Rob Eddy (a greenhouse grower himself and former head of the Department of Controlled Environment Agriculture at Purdue University. Eddy also spent some time as an on-staff Horticulturist for Dow AgroSciences in the mid-90s.)

“Rob also has a ton of experience in outdoor and even warehouse (production), as well as a lot of experience with other crops,” Smith says. “We want to enable cross learnings from cannabis growers, to other cultivators of other crops, as well as having the cannabis growers learn from them as well. Let’s put cannabis and hemp into the right comparison of other crops (agronomically), and let’s treat this crop like a professional agricultural commodity, just like any other crop.”

Are you a greenhouse cannabis producer with a unique viewpoint on water usage or water quality? Or maybe you are involved in the industry and have a keen passion for water conservation issues? RII’s Water Working Group wants to hear from you! Follow this link to get involved.

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