The State Water Resources Control Board is set to drop the hammer on cannabis cultivators and landlords stealing and fouling water in the drought-stricken state.

Thanks to millions of dollars in extra funding from the state of California, Cris Carrigan, director of the state water board’s Office of Enforcement, has launched a pilot program that’ll begin surging into private lands in northern Sacramento, fining folks up to $10,000 a day, and potentially placing liens on property.

Carrigan outlined Water Board plans Oct. 15 at a stakeholder meeting in Humboldt, the North Coast Journal reports Thursday.

State water board employees will look for illegal grading, dumping, chemical use, construction and sedimentation that impacts watersheds.

“If we see that streams are drying up that are salmon habitat … and we see that there’s a massive amount of grading in that watershed, that’s where we’ll go,” Carrigan told attendees.

The task force will travel across vast swaths of California. California is the domestic epicenter of U.S. cannabis cultivation, second only to Mexico, researchers state. Americans consume an estimated 2,500 – 5,000 metric tons of the plant per year. State voters legalized medical marijuana in 1996 though the drug remains federally illegal. Consequently, the state has a billion-dollar black market that does not seek water permits like traditional agriculture.

Carrigan anticipates a five-week cycle for tackling problem watersheds. Week one: Prioritize an area. Week two: Sheriff’s deputies ensure access to a site, whether it’s through consent of the landowner or a search warrant. Week three: Field personnel visit the site. Week four: Staff assembles the case. Week five: Lawyers huddle and decide who’s going to take the case. Repeat.

[We updated this story Oct. 29, 2014 to clarify SWB can place liens — not seize — fined properties.]