OKARCHE, Okla. (KFOR) – For the last several months, an Okarche marijuana grow has allegedly been dumping its waste at the back of their property which is now overflowing onto a neighboring ranch.
News 4 has concealed the identity of the ranch owner as she fears for her physical safety.
She first noticed the growing mountain of waste four months ago.
“It wasn’t as large of a pile as it is now,” she said.
The ranch owner has reached out to several agencies including the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Association, her local Commissioner, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
With every call, she was turned away as the agencies said the situation doesn’t fall under their umbrella of expertise.
She then reached out to the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office last Thursday.
Sheriff Chris West told News 4, “[The ranch owner] showed the deputies. It appeared to be about 200 units of the potting soil material commonly used by places like TLC. The deputies contacted the manager of the marijuana grow and was shown the soil eroding over into private property. The manager told the deputy he would have it cleaned up by the next day.”
Almost a week later and the ranch owner said the pile has gotten bigger.
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Overflow of Nature Farming LLC waste Wednesday morning. KFOR photo
Overflow of Nature Farming LLC waste Wednesday morning. KFOR photo. News 4 stopped by her ranch Wednesday morning. There are several canisters of insecticide and garbage mixed in with the soil.
“How much more are they going to continue to pour over? I fear for my cattle with the chemicals,” added the rancher. “I like to think [of] myself as a good neighbor. And any time that, you know, something’s been brought up to their attention that it should be, you know, handled in a timely manner. There’s no doubt that they know that they’ve encroached on our property for some time.”
News 4 reached out to the marijuana grow, Nature Farming LLC Wednesday morning for an update on the cleaning.
Within minutes of leaving a voicemail, Nature Farm LLC’s Grow Manager called back.
He told KFOR they’ve already contacted the property owner to clean up the mess. He said it hasn’t been cleaned up so far because the “property owner has been busy.”
The Grow Manager also said the property owner is waiting on an excavator to be available. He’s expecting to have the clean up started within two to three days.
To prevent the waste from overflowing onto the ranch again, he said they are going to build a fence around the back end of their property.
“Let the [ranch owner] know we’re sorry about that. We will never have any waste backed up to the farms anymore,” said the Nature Farming LLC Grow Manager.
News 4 also spoke with the Nature Farming LLC Property Manager Wednesday afternoon who said he will be expediting the clean up and expects everything to be gone by Monday.
“Wow. Thank you so much for what you’ve done!!! I really appreciate it!!!,” exclaimed the ranch owner in a text once she was made aware of the good news.
The Canadian County Sheriff’s Office has not issued a citation to Nature Farming LLC yet.
If the mess isn’t cleaned up, Sheriff West said they’ll look to the Canadian County District Attorney’s Office for guidance.
According to the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Association’s website, Nature Farming LLC’s grow license expired on March 17 of this year.
H/T: https://kfor.com/
