IF YOU CAN, PLEASE COME TO SANTA ROSA on Wednesday the 16th, and *encourage* our friends at the Water Board to do the right thing and deny PL Lumber additional Timber Harvest Plans without assurance that they will not cause further degradation of the watershed.
We will demand:
► No more THPs in Elk or Freshwater until adequate Watershed-wide Waste Discharge Requirements have been developed;
► Support real peer-reviewed science to inform decision making over Timber Harvest Plans in impaired and sensitive watersheds.
► Support policies and programs that reverse degradation and promote sufficient recovery trends to restore the beneficial uses of water in these watersheds.
DATE: Wednesday, March 16, 2005
TIME: The hearing will begin at 9 AM. Come early to get a seat! We recommend being there by 8:00 AM.
PLACE: North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
5550 Skylane Blvd., Suite A
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board will hold a public hearing in Santa Rosa to consider demands by Maxxam/Pacific Lumber Co. for authorization to conduct extensive logging in two of its severely fractured watersheds, Elk River and Freshwater Creek. These watersheds, listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act, are impacted by landslides, sedimentation and widespread damage resulting from PL logging. Downstream residents, human and other species alike, have for many years suffered the effects, including severe flooding, loss of drinking water, and habitat destruction.
At the hearing, the Board will consider Maxxam/Pacific Lumber's request for additional enrollments of Timber Harvest Plans in the General Waste Discharge Requirements (GWDRs), a regulatory mechanism by which the Water Board carries out its mandate under law to protect beneficial uses of water. Maxxam/Pacific Lumber, threatening dire economic consequences without its high levels of logging, wants to use the GWDRs, which were designed for normally functioning watersheds, as a loophole so they can log trees in the impaired watersheds. In late February, the NCRWQCB's Executive Officer enrolled 50% of the timber it sought in the two impaired watersheds under the GWDRs, an obvious response to political pressure brought by PL.
EPIC and other concerned members of the public will demand at the public hearing in Santa Rosa on the 16th that the Board rescind this decision and allow no more logging in these watersheds without specific scientific assurance that the watersheds will be protected. These assurances must be developed through the more site-specific Watershed-wide Waste Discharge Requirements (WWWDRs), which the NCRWQCB decided in 2003 were necessary for these watersheds. Because PL failed to provide requested information, the NCRWQCB has been unable to complete that process and appears poised to reward PL for its deliberate delay.
