Law enforcement searched an allegedly illegal cannabis operation in rural Central Point on Friday, detaining  seven people and seizing  about 39,000 unlicensed marijuana plants, $3,000 in cash and two guns, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Tuesday.

The Jackson County Illegal Marijuana Enforcement Team, which led the bust with resources from the sheriff’s office and Oregon State Police, is referring charges to the district attorney’s office, the release said.

For taking water from Snider Creek without authorization, a responsible party will receive a notice of violation “subject to both civil and criminal penalties” — from the Oregon Water Resources Department Enforcement section, the news release said.

State watermasters estimate that disrupting the black-market growing operation and destroying the plants saved about 1.5 million gallons of water.

In addition, county code enforcement imposed fines totaling $64,000 on the landowner and a responsible party, according to the release, “for violations related to solid waste, non-permitted construction of a large pole barn structure, non-permitted electrical installations and failure to obtain land use approval for marijuana production.”

The solid waste violations stemmed from “plastic materials including PVC piping, plastic sheeting and other miscellaneous materials that were burned in April,” the release said.

Jackson County Fire District 3 had responded to the property on April 16, the release notes, after three enormous heaps of the plastic and other debris had been burned in the open air.