Oregon’s natural resource agencies have spent millions of dollars regulating, policing and helping grow the state’s emerging cannabis industry — without additional staff or funding.

That’s taken a toll on regular duties at the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy and Water Resources Department.

A bill pending in the Legislature would reimburse the agencies for those costs, using some of the pot tax money that currently goes to education, cities and counties, and drug and alcohol prevention and treatment services.

Without reimbursement, the agencies will need to increase fees on conventional customers or face backlogs on other work, Caleb Hayes, a spokesman for Rep. Brad Witt, said at a legislative hearing on the bill.

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Witt, D-Clatskanie, is co-sponsoring the proposal, House Bill 2672.

The legislation doesn’t set an exact amount to be reimbursed. Lawmakers will consider whether to set a cap on the total amount. The state collected more than $82 million in marijuana taxes last year.

“The cannabis industry has added some burdens onto (the agencies’) responsibilities. We need to figure out a fair way that’s taken care of so the rest of the jobs these agencies do is not affected,” said Peggy Lynch, of the League of Women Voters.

Oregon has about 2,200 active cannabis producer licenses, and more than 12,000 registered medical marijuana grow sites.

For the Department of Agriculture, that’s meant time spent developing cannabis pesticide rules, and enforcing them.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen a high number of pesticide use of products that aren’t on the approved list,” Katie Fast, executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, told the committee. OFS is an industry group that advocates for responsible pesticide use.

Cannabis now accounts for about 15 percent of the agriculture departments pesticide investigations, Fast said.

Cannabis pesticide testing is costing $500,000 to $1.5 million per biennium, Hayes said.

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The ag department hopes to add two full-time workers devoted to cannabis, Fast said.

However, Department of Agriculture officials were not able to answer questions about cannabis impacts for this story.

For the Water Resources Department, the cannabis industry has increased its workload associated with calls to the customer service line and front counter traffic, pre-application meetings, responding to and investigating complaints, and policy interpretation, spokeswoman Racquel Rancier said.

“While many marijuana producers are responsible water users, the department continues to receive and investigate complaints about illegal water uses,” Rancier said. “Investigating these issues and ascertaining whether water is being used legally is a difficult task that draws water masters and assistant water masters away from their other duties.”

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The Water Resources Department would like at least $860,000 to add four assistant regional water masters to address its workload, Hayes said.

The Department of Energy hasn’t yet seen an unexpected increase in workload from cannabis, spokeswoman Rachel Wray said.

But the department does provide technical assistance about energy systems and energy use to growers. It also created an Indoor Cannabis Cultivator Energy Use Estimator, available on its web site.

Contact the reporter at tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/Tracy_Loew