“an environmental nightmare, killing all variety of animals”

A marijuana cultivation operation that resulted in a host of highly toxic chemicals being washed into a tributary of Coyote Creek…

Fish and Wildlife officials said they found car batteries, propane canisters, a large amount of black plastic irrigation line and worst of all, fertilizers and pesticides.

“There was everything from insecticides to poisons for rodents,” ward Fish and Wildlife Warden Mark Michilizzi. “It included Furadan, an illegal pesticide that’s extremely toxic.”

Michilizzi said the result is an environmental nightmare, killing all variety of animals — some through direct consumption, others after they feed on poisoned rodents, and still more when the chemicals are washed into waterways that are used by spawning salmon and other fish.

“It’s not uncommon for us to find dead wildlife at these groves,” Michilizzi said. “Particularly birds of prey, coyotes, animals higher up on the food chain. And we find that there’s a large amount of chemicals that are mixed directly in the water source with total disregard to the environment.”

He said that when it rains, more chemicals will be washed downstream.

“There’s no mitigation to keep any harmful substances out of the watershed,” he said. “The dead animals are a more obvious sign you can see, but even if you don’t see that, all this poison is getting directly mixed with the water source.”

…they suspect the grove may have been the work of operatives with Mexican drug cartels, and have seen numerous other grows in remote areas throughout the state.

So far this year, eradication operations throughout the state have netted 285,000 plants, 6,800 pounds of fertilizer, 32,000 pounds of garbage and 154,000 feet of irrigation tubing, Michilizzi said. There have been 110 arrests, and 39 firearms have been seized.

mercurynews.com: Environmental nightmare found at pot grow in backcountry southeast of San Jose