State Water Board – Site Management Plan for Commercial Cannabis

The State Water Resource Control Board approved the Cannabis General Order last year on October 17th. The General Order covers guidelines for cannabis cultivation, general waste discharge requirements, and waiver of discharge requirements for discharges of waste associated with cannabis cultivation activities. To obtain a license from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, one must be in compliance with the cannabis policy. An important aspect of becoming compliant is submitting a Site Management Plan. 

What is a Site Management Plan?

A Site Management Plan is a list of activities and best management practices that a cannabis cultivation site intends to follow as they conduct their business operations. The goal of a Site Management Plan is to prevent storm water pollution and erosion control. An outline of a Site Management Plan is found in the General Order, as Attachment D. This outline shows the requirements that need to be addressed in the Site Management Plan.

The first step is to identify what type of discharger category the site falls under; Tier 1 or Tier 2.

Tier 1: Having a disturbed area greater than 2,000 square feet but less than 1 Acre (43,560 square feet).

Tier 2: Having a disturbed area equal to or greater than 1 Acre.
The second step is to identify your Risk Designation; Low, Moderate, or High Risk:

Low Risk: The disturbed area has a slope less than 30 percent and all of the disturbed area complies with required setbacks to riparian areas.

Moderate Risk: Any portion of the disturbed area has a slope greater than 30 percent and all of the disturbed area complies with the required setbacks to riparian areas.

High Risk: Any Portion of the disturbed area is within required setbacks of riparian areas.

​Understanding and determining your Tier and Risk Designation is a very important part of the Site Management Plan. This will dictate what is required in the Site Management Plan and whether or not other reports will be required upon submittal.

The Site Management Plan covers multiple aspects of stormwater, sediment control, and erosion prevention. The plan needs to show how a site will prevent stormwater pollution and the best practical treatment or control (BPTC) measures that will be implemented to deal with waste discharge from the site. The discharger information must include; Sediment Discharge BPTC Measures, Fertilizer and Pesticide BPTC Measures, Petroleum Product BPTC Measures, Trash and Domestic Wastewater BPTC Measures, and Winterization BPTC measures.

If this information seems like a lot, don’t worry as we are here to help!
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Planning your Cannabis Cultivation Project

The BC Engineering Group staff has developed numerous Site Management Plans and can walk you through every step of the Cannabis use permitting process. As a leading civil engineering design firm, feel free to reach out to us with any questions you may have regarding cannabis cultivation. Take advantage of our experience and contact us today for your cannabis and agricultural land development needs, we are here to help.

For more information on cannabis cultivation permitting and other land planning services, please contact us at 707-542-4321. You can also stay up to date with civil engineering and land planning issues by liking us on Facebook and Linkedin, and subscribing to our blog.