Water use permits for four marijuana farming operations were approved recently by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.
The Weed Patch, in Stephens County, was granted a temporary permit to pump 2 acre-feet of water (651,700 gallons) annually from the subterranean Wellington Formation to irrigate medical marijuana.
Carlos Gonzalez, in Bryan County, received a regular permit to pump 5 acre-feet of water (1.6 million gallons) each year from the Antlers Sandstone to irrigate medical marijuana.
The Water Board approved a limited quantity temporary groundwater permit for the Boro Family Farms in care of Parker Jones of Earlsboro. That application requested 8 acre-feet of water (2.6 million gallons) annually for growing medical marijuana. The water will be pumped from three wells in Pottawatomie County drilled into the Vanoss Group Groundwater Basin.
The board also approved an application July 15 for 1 acrefoot of groundwater (325,851 gallons, enough to inundate an acre of land under 1 foot of water) for an indoor grow operation of medical cannabis in northwestern Lincoln County.
The application for a limited quantity regular groundwater permit was filed a year and a half ago by Liguang Xu, Davis L. Morris and Li Meng, of Moore.
Surface owners within a quarter-mile of the outside boundary of the water well were notified in late 2024 of the application, and a hearing on the merits of the case was held June 19. Two protestants appeared.
“We get a lot of protests on medical cannabis” applications, said Chris Neel, chief of the OWRB’s Water Rights Administration Division.
According to the administrative law judge who presided over the hearing, “undisputed evidence” included a quit claim deed issued to all three applicants and filed on Feb. 1, 2021. The evidence also showed that the well, which penetrates the Garber-Wellington aquifer and has existed for almost 24 years, is located on property “for which they have land rights” and thus the applicants have permission to take up to 2 acre-feet of water per year.
“No evidence was shown that there would be a better location on the property owned by applicants to justify the cost of placing a new well elsewhere,” the judge added.
Furthermore, they secured a license from the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority for a company named Limeng Green, which is owned by Li Meng and meets “the lawful purpose element for a beneficial agricultural use” under state law.
The Water Board acknowledged the protestants’ “important public concerns about the groundwater supply in the area and that the use of groundwater could potentially be adversely affected by neighboring uses of groundwater from the same basin.” However, the judge continued, “there is no basis in this case to determine” that the applicants’ proposed water use would be “impermissible or unlawful.”
Furthermore, “The stated purpose of Oklahoma Groundwater Law is to promote the reasonable development and use of the groundwater resources by overlying landowners.” State law “contemplates the eventual depletion of the groundwater resources…” the judge added.
The Medical Marijuana Authority had issued 2,709 medical marijuana grow licenses as of June.