Eureka, CA - Maxxam/Pacific Lumber will be allowed to clear-cut more steep hillsides in the blighted Freshwater and Elk River watersheds, the Regional Water board decided Friday. The decision flies in the face of independent scientific data that shows logging by Maxxam/PL is causing permanent damage to the two areas, which are listed as sediment impaired under the Clean Water Act.

Lack of complete landslide data did not discourage the Regional Water Quality Board from giving the controversial logging corporation the go-ahead to log more timber. The Board began asking for the data last summer as part of a year-long process to prepare permits for waste discharge for PL logging operations scheduled to begin January 2005. A US District Court found in October 2003 that sediment erosion running off cut-over hillsides that clogs creeks and rivers constitutes a "point-source" of pollution. PL’s refusal to turn over the data left them without the necessary permits, and threats of bankruptcy ensued after the company claimed a “log shortage."

“This decision reinforces PL’s bad behavior by rewarding them for their pressure tactics,” said Humboldt Watershed Council president Mark Lovelace. Read more.