Our Issue: Logging roads federal waste discharge permits ruling

What’s the deal?

On May 17, 2011, the Ninth Circuit Court denied reconsideration of their earlier ruling in NEDC v. Brown that logging is an industrial activity under the EPA’s stormwater regulations and that logging roads are point sources for erosion and thus need waste discharge permits.  Logging roads had previously been defined as non-point sources in the Silviculture Exemption and erosion control has been regulated by the states through Best Management Practices.

The forestry community in the rest of the country finds this an alarming trend and has a two-pronged attack in progress to nullify it.  Two bills, HR 2541 and S 1369 have been introduced to redefine forestry as a non-point source and it is gaining cosponsors almost daily, although no one from California has signed on yet.  PLF filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Forest Landowners Association arguing the exemption is indeed valid.   

CCFA sent letters to each representative in our area and to both senators, urging them to back this legislation.  The Board has also subscribed to each of these bills to track their progress through Congress. 

Why do I care?

Implementing the Ninth Circuit’s ruling will add yet another layer of oversight, expense  and redundancy to the practice of forestry, which is already very heavily regulated, especially in California.  Southern subdistrict forestry regulations already do far more than the EPA will require, so we will all be buying yet another permit which accomplishes nothing except add more paper to our pile, more inspections to schedule and more money out of our pocket.  It also opens the possibility of more conflict of vision between agencies that we need to resolve to get permission to do anything.

Where do I find more?

To see the Court decision visit:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2011/05/17/07-35266.pdf.

to track the legislation, see:
HR 2541 : http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-2541

S 1369: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s112-1369

Article about PLF’s actions in this issue:
http://plf.typepad.com/plf/2010/08/clean-water-act-permits-required-for-runoff-from-forest-roads.html

What can I do?

To date, no California congressman has joined the party.  Write your assemblyman and Senators Boxer (http://boxer.senate.gov/) and Feinstein (http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/) urging them to support HR 2541 and S 1369.  The more letters they receive, the likelier they are to get on board.

If you aren’t sure who your representative is, enter http://www.house.gov/ and enter your zipcode in the box on the upper right of the page. 

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