*Another Reason to hate pot growers*

Contractors continue to excavate soil and mop up oil with absorbent pads nearly a week after a diesel spill from an alleged pot grow was first reported on a tributary of Salmon Creek in Southern Humboldt County.

It may be weeks more before the cleanup is done, said Lt. Jon Willcox with the California Department of Fish and Game. The landowner responsible for the leaking diesel tanks is cooperating with Northcoast Environmental Construction on the effort, but will likely face a variety of charges, Willcox said.

”There will definitely be charges filed in this case,” Willcox said.

These range from Fish and Game violations, as well as water quality and air quality violations, he said.

About 1,000 gallons of red diesel leaked from the tanks that fed a diesel generator that provided power to two alleged marijuana grow houses. The fuel ran into the soil and through fractured bedrock, then into Hacker Creek.

Despite efforts to contain the spill, it has moved down the creek another 100 yards, said Melissa Martel, a supervising environmental health specialist with the Humboldt County Department of Environmental Health, and is now 300 to 400 yards downstream from where the fuel is seeping in.

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_93...