State & Regional Water Boards Prepare to Cave In To Logging Industry

~ E P I C A C T I O N A L E R T ~
____________________________________________________________

State and Regional Water Boards Prepare to Cave In To Logging Industry Pressure
Citizen Response Urgently Needed
____________________________________________________________

Nearly all of the watersheds on the North Coast have been damaged by logging operations, but perhaps none have received as much attention from state agencies as five of those subjected to logging by Pacific Lumber -- Freshwater Creek, Elk River, Stitz Creek, Bear Creek, and Jordan Creek.
Despite this attention and the undeniable harm to salmon habitat and domestic water sources that has occurred, it is business as usual in these areas today, and clear cutting and other intensive logging operations continue at an alarming rate. The North Coast Regional Water Quality
Control Board (Regional Board) was on the verge of taking strong, unprecedented actions to address these problems in October 2000, but after delaying formal hearings numerous times, they are now preparing to abandon these actions altogether.

BACKGROUND

It has been more than four years since the California Department of Forestry (CDF) admitted that PL's logging operations caused "significant adverse cumulative impacts" to salmon habitat and domestic water sources in these
five watersheds. The staff of the Regional Board recommended several actions at that time to address the severe water quality problems, and CDF agreed that further logging operations would not be approved in these areas
until PL completed the actions outlined by the Regional Board. However, as time progressed and PL refused to produce results, CDF began approving additional logging operations in these areas anyway. Approximately 2,000
acres in these watersheds have been approved for logging since CDF made its pledge in 1998, and there are more than 4,000 acres more that are now pending CDF's rubber stamp of approval.

In September 2000, the staff of the Regional Board produced a report (Staff Report) that documented the impacts in the five watersheds and made specific recommendations to address these concerns. The report found that the amount of sediment going to streams had increased by up to 1,365% as logging rates had increased, and concluded that "[t]he sediment reports demonstrated a clear relationship between rates of timber harvest and rates of landsliding." The staff recommended nine protective and restorative orders
to prevent further degradation in the five watersheds areas. These included "waste discharge requirements" and "cease and desist orders that would limit the annual rate of logging in Bear Creek to 1.5% of inventory and to below
0.3% in the North Fork Elk River. This would be a drastic reduction in the current and planned rates of logging by PL in these areas over the next five years.

Evidentiary hearings were scheduled and formal administrative briefs were submitted by the designated parties in the proceeding, including EPIC, but
with steady political manuvering, Board members effectively blocked hearings over the entire course of 2001. Now the Regional Board is preparing to permanently toss all but one of its staff's seven recommendations -- this
one being the only one that is not met with resistance from PL. The problem with this course is that it will not change anything until an unknown date in the distant future, and will do nothing to address the serious water quality damage that is ongoing and increasing in the meantime.


ACTION NEEDED!

The Regional Board is preparing to develop "total maximum daily load" plans on an expedited schedule for two of the five watersheds. These plans are developed for watersheds that are overloaded with particular pollutants--in
this case sediment--and are a good aspect of the Clean Water Act that EPIC supports. However, it takes an extraordinary amount of time to develop and implement such a plan, and there is no longer time to wait in these watersheds. There has only been one such plan passed by the state to date
and this took more than four years to be finalized. It is absolutely critical that the other recommendations from the staff be implemented so that these issues will be addressed before it is too late.

The Regional Board not only has the ability, but also the legislative mandate to protect these and all watersheds on the North Coast from harm caused by logging operations. It is imperative that citizens join together and help bolster the Board's will to carry out and fulfill its mandate to
protect water quality and take the steps that should have been taken long ago. Please attend the upcoming Board meeting in Eureka and/or write the Board today to urge them to enact the recommendations made by its staff to
address the immediate problems facing these areas.
o Attend the Meeting: The Regional Board will be meeting at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka on Thursday, February 28 (1 Marina Way, Eureka). This issue is on this agenda, and there will be an opportunity for public comments at or after 1:30 p.m.

o Write a Letter: Please write the Regional Board today (see the attached sample letter) and urge them to:
- Stop allowing politics to substitute for sound science

- Reinstate the evidentiary hearings originally scheduled for the "Staff Report"

- Take action that will immediately address the ongoing and increasing problems facing these areas. This action must include issuing cease and desist orders and waste discharge requirements as recommended by the staff of the Regional Board

Please stress to the Board that watershed recovery is what is needed in these areas, and that they must uphold their legislative mandate by protecting them from further harm. Simply developing a "total maximum daily load" plan sometime in the future will not satisfy this obligation due to
the ongoing and impending water quality threats that exist.
Contact the Regional Board by Tuesday February 26, 2002:

Board Members, Regional Water Quality Control Board
Susan Warner, Executive Officer
Fax: (707) 523 - 0135
Email: Billmassey [at] aol.com
WarnS [at] rb1.swrcb.ca.gov


SAMPLE LETTER (also attached)

Board Members
Susan Warner, Executive Officer
5550 Skylane Boulevard, Suite A
Santa Rosa, California 95403

Re: The Regional Board's Actions/Inactions for Freshwater Creek, Elk River, Stitz Creek, Bear Creek & Jordan Creek

Dear Board Members and Ms. Warner,

I am writing to express my great concern with the water quality impacts facing the five watersheds identified above and to urge the Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) to take effective action that will
immediately address these problems. I am supportive of developing a "total maximum daily load" (TMDL) plan for each of these areas, but something else must be done to prevent further harm in the meantime. Developing a TMDL
will take two to five years and will not address the impending threats of extremely high levels of logging that Pacific Lumber has planned for these areas; time is running out to protect these heavily impacted watercourses
and the fish and human populations that depend on them.

The Clean Water Act requires the Regional Board to protect these five watersheds from further degradation. Sound science has shown the connection between the cumulative impacts of intense industrial logging practices by
Maxxam/Pacific Lumber Company and the undeniable harm to water quality for both fish and human populations.

I strongly urge the Regional Board to reinstate the evidentiary hearings that were scheduled for the "Staff Report" released in September 2000 and to enact the nine protective and restorative orders this reports recommends,
including cease and desist orders and waste discharge requirements. As your staff documents in their report, these measures are necessary to address the
ongoing and increasing problems facing these watersheds. If your Board only requires that a TMDL be developed for two of these five watersheds sometime in the future, a tremendous amount of damage will occur and your legislative
mandate will be left unfulfilled.

Thank you for the opportunity to address these important issues and voice my concerns.


Respectfully,

Name
Address