Overview:
One Buellton cannabis grower has racked up air pollution violations since 2021, with the most recent set prosecuted by the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office. A $620,000 settlement on that lawsuit brings Central Coast Agriculture’s total payout to about $2 million for violating Air Pollution Control District rules. The money’s been used to pay for more district staff, furniture at local elementary schools, and a trail restoration project, among other things. Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood writes about air pollution, the pending violations, and the fines.
In the span of two years, Central Coast Agriculture—a cannabis cultivator with facilities in Buellton and Lompoc—agreed to pay nearly $2 million for breaking state and local air quality laws.
That sum doesn’t include two pending violations issued by Santa Barbara County’s Air Pollution Control District (APCD) in 2025 awaiting resolution, according to the agency, which got a $1.3 million settlement from Central Coast Agriculture in 2024 after citing the grower for operating without certain emission controls in place.
“That case was settled through APCD’s mutual settlement process and did not involve the DA’s Office,” APCD Public Information Officer Lyz Bantilan told the Sun via email.
But the county District Attorney’s Office was involved with the APCD’s latest investigation of Central Coast Agriculture that led to a $620,000 settlement in mid-August.
“APCD very rarely opts to forward cases to the DA’s Office, but these were serious violations of air quality rules that resulted in excess pollutants that affect human health—more than 120 tons of diesel exhaust,” Bantilan explained.
While last year’s settlement was based on an APCD inspection of Central Coast Agriculture’s Lompoc facility in 2020, this year’s settlement resulted from 17 violations tied to diesel generator use at two of the company’s properties in Buellton.
“Those violations were issued in March 2021—16 violations—and March 2022—one violation, … across two sites for installing and operating diesel generators for primary electrical power,” Bantilan said.
Operating diesel generators for that purpose breaks state protocols, specifically the California Air Resources Board’s Portable Engine Registration Program regulations, according to the complaint, which also lists additional violations related to the equipment, including monthly reporting practices the grower allegedly failed to meet.
“APCD attempted to address these [notices of violations] through our internal mutual settlement process but we were unable to reach an agreement … after negotiating for approximately one year,” Bantilan said. “Referring cases from our mutual settlement program to the DA’s Office has only been done two other times in the last 10 years.”
Bantilan said that the APCD forwarded the diesel generator case to the DA’s Office in April 2022. Senior Deputy District Attorneys Christopher Dalbey and Morgan Lucas, who specialize in consumer and environmental protection, spearheaded the lawsuit.
“We review every case that’s referred on its merits and [whether] it warrants the kind of resources we have to prosecute it,” Dalbey told the Sun, “or to continue the investigation and/or prosecute it.
“There are limitations around resources. We have two attorneys who handle these types of cases,” said Dalbey, referring to himself and Lucas. “Even though consumer protection and environmental protection may not have much substantive overlap, the enforcement tools, meaning civil prosecution, are the same. … They’re [both] largely civil cases. Sometimes they’re criminal cases.”
While details about negotiations between the DA’s Office and Central Coast Agriculture between 2022 and 2025 are protected under the California Evidence Code, Dalbey said he was able to comment on the three-year timeframe.
“Because the violations had ceased, we were willing to engage in a longer negotiation to attempt to reach a settlement,” Dalbey said. “If we’re referred to a matter and there’s ongoing violations, … then we are much more likely to take kind of immediate action in court, because that’s often a way to address ongoing violations.”
Central Coast Agriculture was not considered a repeat or ongoing offender in the diesel generator case since its previous APCD violations weren’t related to diesel generators.
“We didn’t allege that they violated the other order. Even though it’s the same company, it was apples and oranges from a legal perspective,” Dalbey said.
The DA’s Office wasn’t involved with the 2024 case about emission control compliance, which APCD handled internally. Public Information Officer Bantilan said that APCD hasn’t discovered violations of that kind at Central Coast Agriculture’s properties since then.
Earlier this year, APCD issued two unrelated notices of violations at the cannabis company’s manufacturing facility in Lompoc for “failing to perform monthly odor-control equipment inspections during four months in 2024, and for exceeding their daily and monthly permitted solvent use limits in October 2024,” Bantilan said.
“[Central Coast Agriculture] hasn’t paid a fine for those yet, and they’ll need to go through APCD’s mutual settlement process,” Bantilan added.
The Sun reached out to Central Coast Agriculture for comment, but did not receive a response before press time.
When the APCD secured the $1.3 million settlement last year, a portion of the funds were used to hire two temporary staff members to support the agency’s cannabis operation inspection efforts throughout Santa Barbara County, Bantilan said. Another portion went directly toward air quality improvement initiatives based in Lompoc.
The United Boys and Girls Club of Santa Barbara County’s Lompoc location, for example, received $50,000 for an air filtration project and two heat pump installations, while $200,000 was split between two elementary schools in the Lompoc Unified School District for furniture replacement.
With the recent diesel generator case and its $620,000 settlement, the DA’s Office received $260,000 to support its ongoing enforcement of consumer and environmental protection laws.
APCD also received $260,000, and the agency plans to designate a portion to help fund air quality improvement projects in Buellton, Bantilan said.
The remaining $100,000 was set aside to support the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade’s ongoing Refugio Road Trail Restoration Project—which aims to restore a historic walking and equestrian trail along Refugio Road from Highway 246 to Baseline Avenue in the Santa Ynez Valley.
“We thought there was sufficient nexus to the improvement of outdoor recreation. … Having clean air when you’re on a trail is a good thing,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Dalbey said. “Because this was an air pollution violation, meaning the diesel exhaust had already been emitted, … it’s not like someone deposited hazardous waste and there’s a specific piece of land to go fix. It’s more of a dispersed environmental harm.”
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 4 – Sep 14, 2025.