Editor:

In regards to Ryan Burns' article "Humboldt Growers' Bad Reputation," ("The Week in Weed," Sept. 12) where he simply assumes the recent water thefts are by pot growers because "in rural Humboldt County there could only be one motive."

Were these water thefts ever tracked to pot growers? Hasn't it been determined a water truck would have been necessary to steal the school's water?

I personally witnessed a water company truck siphoning from a water hydrant in Garberville a few years ago, and am told that's not uncommon. Perhaps thieving water companies are selling to pot farmers, but that doesn't make the farmers themselves thieves.

As deputy directory of California NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), I'd to know if this is being investigated, or just blamed on pot growers (like the Yosemite fire almost was, until it turned out to be a deer hunter instead).

Certainly stream diversions and the like are criminal, and are rightly being treated as such, but let's not paint the problem with the broad brush of prejudice and miss any true culprits.

Ellen Komp, Berkeley