Humboldt court ruling undermines regional water boards' authority

Thursday January 30, 2003

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO (AP) A ruling by a Humboldt County judge may new hamper efforts by regional water regulators to limit logging by pre-empting state rules they say don't do enough to protect California's rivers and streams.

The judge ruled the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board couldn't add logging restrictions once the state Department of Forestry had approved a timber harvest plan for Pacific Lumber Co. near the Hole in the Headwaters ancient redwood forest.

The ruling comes just as regional boards are attempting to impose additional protections for waterways they say are endangered by logging plans approved by the state.

The Lake Tahoe-area Lahontan regional board approved the new regulations this month, while the Central Valley board unanimously adopted a similar policy Thursday. The Central Coast board is scheduled to consider the jointly drafted policy next week.

Timber companies and the Department of Forestry object to the new policy as redundant and cumbersome because it adds an additional layer of bureaucracy.

Department spokesman Louis Blumberg said the department's review of timber harvest plans already adequately protects waterways. Regional water boards already are free to participate in the timber harvest plan (THP) review, he said, but generally haven't because of short staffs and budgets. When they do, he said the department accepts their recommendations about 95 percent of the time.

Humboldt Superior Court Judge J. Michael Brown echoed that reasoning in rejecting water regulators' attempt to require Pacific Lumber to monitor intensively potential erosion into the Elk River from its timber cut. The North Coast board acted independently after the department rejected its monitoring proposal.

Such an action violates state lawmakers' intent that logging companies have to deal with just one agency, Brown ruled. Otherwise, other agencies, ``unhappy with the final plan (could) ignore the appeal process and simply issue their own orders to the timberland owner,'' Brown concluded.

``This is a pretty clear ruling that there is a role for the water board to play but it's in that THP review process,'' said Pacific Lumber Co. spokesman Jim Branham. ``It's fundamental to all of those debates'' over the water boards' authority.

Environmental groups that have pushed for the new water board rules agreed, and could only urge the State Water Resources Control Board to appeal Friday's ruling. Board spokeswoman Myrlys Stockdale said the board hadn't seen the ruling and couldn't comment.

``You'll have tremendous statewide implications'' if the ruling stands, said Ken Miller, a director of the Humboldt Watershed Council made up of residents who want limits in Pacific Lumber Co.'s logging. ``It completely emasculates the Legislature's intent to protect water quality when Board of Forestry regulations fail.''

``To say that's not allowed sets a dangerous precedent for our watersheds here in Humboldt County ... and for forests throughout California,'' said Cynthia Elkins of the Environmental Protection Information Center.

Pacific Lumber agreed to stop logging above Freshwater Creek this week after environmental groups and the regional water board objected that it was causing erosion.

Environmental groups and state Sen. Byron Sher, D-Stanford, also suggested this week that erosion from a different Pacific Lumber timber cut has killed at least a dozen ancient redwoods in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The company denies both claims.

On the Net:

http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb5/news/index.html

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)