Montana Hemp Farmer Granted Right To Federally-controlled Water
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]O[/dropcap]ne Montana farmer recently has won the right to use federally-controlled water to grow her hemp crop for research.
On May 30, hemp farmer Kim Phillips received a contract to use water from the Canyon Ferry Reservoir in Helena Valley, Montana, just days before she needed to plant her crops.
Last year, Phillips had been authorized to grow her crop under Montana’s Industrial Hemp Pilot program. The program was created under the 2014 Farm Bill that allowed for farmers to grow hemp for state agriculture and university research. Unfortunately, her request for water was denied by the Helena Valley Irrigation District and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation last year and her crops died.
“It really is an extraordinary day for hemp and the hemp industry,” Phillips said. She will be growing for the Montana Department of Agriculture for research purposes. “It shouldn’t take this long to get water for your hemp, it just shouldn’t. A lot of people were supportive—both senators, Grow Hemp, Vote Hemp, things like that—and I could not have got it done without each one of those and all the people that put in work before me, that have chipped away at all these battles for a plant.”
Even though industrial hemp is also a cannabis plant, it is low in THC and only grown for making non-hallucinogenic CBD oil as well as paper, fabric, animal feed and other uses. The nature of cannabis as federally illegal sometimes makes growing hemp a legally sensitive endeavor.
The Bureau of Reclamation prohibits the use of federally-controlled water to irrigate controlled substances, A statue for the bureau bans the use of federal water for hemp and other controlled substances according to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, even if a state legalizes the substance. However, the Farm Bill recognized hemp as a legal crop federally for research.
Last year, the state sided with Phillips, saying she was within federal standards and not in violation of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. After fighting back from her first refusal, her senators introduced an industrial hemp water rights act in Congress to help clarify the rules for growing hemp for research.
Finally, the Bureau of Reclamation has balanced the provisions between the Controlled Substances Act and the Farm Bill to make their decision and allowed Phillips to use the federally controlled water.
“We are satisfied with the decision,” said Steve Davies, area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation. He had previously said they had been careful making this decision because of the precedent it sets. “It’s important that we took the time and got the decision right. We had to make sure that the program she is operating under fits the exemption in the federal Farm Bill. “Going forward, we will continue to evaluate these on a case-by-case basis,” he said.
