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Court Shuts Down Logging Under Headwaters Deal

by repost of EPIC/SC PR
Court Shuts Down Logging Under Headwaters Deal
Stall Tactics Backfire on Pacific Lumber
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 30, 2002

For more information, please contact:

Cynthia Elkins, EPIC, (707) 923 - 2931
Kathy Bailey, Sierra Club, (707) 895 - 3716


Court Shuts Down Logging Under Headwaters Deal
Stall Tactics Backfire on Pacific Lumber


The California Superior Court on August 29 issued a “stay” on all logging operations that are authorized under the infamous Headwaters Deal, finding the ruling is necessary to “serve[ ] the public interest…in careful management of natural resources such as forests, wildlife habitat, and wildlife.”

The ruling was issued in an ongoing case the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) and the Sierra Club brought against the Pacific Lumber Company, California Department of Forestry (CDF) and Department of Fish and Game (DFG) in March 1999. The lawsuit challenges state permits that were issued as part of the Headwaters Deal, including permits to kill numerous endangered species and a “streambed alteration” agreement that applies to 210,000 acres of land.

The court’s ruling suspends all logging operations being carried out under these permits, stating that “no party to this proceeding shall take any action whose validity depends upon the validity of” these permits until “further order of the court.”

EPIC and the Sierra Club sought this stay following what the court calls a “manifest delay” in the case proceeding to trial. This delay was caused by CDF’s and DFG’s failure to provide complete, certified administrative records for the court as required, something the agencies have still not done to date. The agencies received their first notices to provide these records on April 6, 1999.

“Delay always favors the defense, and has certainly benefited Pacific Lumber in this case,” Cynthia Elkins, Program Director for EPIC, stated. “When we finally get the facts before a judge, we fully expect the court will find that Pacific Lumber’s permits are invalid. The company is causing serious harm to our forests, fish, and wildlife in the meantime,” Elkins added.

The court notes that EPIC and the Sierra Club are challenging permits that “authorize conduct which may be harmful to sustained timber yields, wildlife habitat and wildlife. Some of such conduct…has been conducted by [Pacific Lumber] during the three year period. In the event that this proceeding results in a determination that the administrative action authorizing such conduct was taken irregularly and must be annulled, the judicial remedy afforded by this proceeding will prove to have been neither prompt nor effective.”

“The Davis Administration’s stalling tactics in this case have allowed Pacific Lumber to continue the clearcut logging that has fouled local drinking water and sent landslides into neighboring homes,” said Kathy Bailey, spokesperson for the Sierra Club. “They’re afraid to let this case proceed because they know we’re right and we can prove it.”

Pacific Lumber has been forced the Regional Water Quality Control Board to truck in drinking water to families who had relied on water from the Elk River for more than 100 years.

According to published news reports, Pacific Lumber donated $61,000 to Governor Davis in the last two years (Sacramento Bee, August 11, 2002), and Governor Davis solicited and received a $15,000 contribution for New Hampshire Governor Gov. Jeanne Shaheenís re-election campaign from Pacific Lumber's Houston-based corporate parent Maxxam (San Jose Mercury News, May 25, 2002) at the same time the state was considering regulatory action against the company for water quality violations. The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, whose members are appointed by Governor Davis, has repeatedly deferred action on the water quality matter, which remains unresolved. [Sacramento Bee, August 11, 2002].


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