Lee Michlin
Frank Reichmuth
California Regional Water Quality Control Board
North Coast Region
5550 Skylane Boulevard, Suite A
Santa Rosa, CA 95403


re: Waste Discharge Reports and Requirements

Dear Messrs. Michlin and Reichmuth,

We were encouraged that the Regional Water Quality Control Board asked your staff to prioritize action that responds to the problems discussed at the December 10, 1998 meeting, and hope that you seize this as an opportunity to begin restoring our fisheries, drinking supplies and other beneficial uses of water. Damage to these resources from sediment and other logging related impacts has become severe and all too common on the North Coast, and an alarming percentage of our rivers and streams can no longer provide the beneficial uses that were designated to them by your board not long ago. We believe one of the first steps necessary to begin reversing this problem is to terminate the waiver of waste discharge reports and requirements for logging. This is not only a potential avenue afforded to you by law, but also your legally mandated duty.

The Basin Plan for the North Coast states "protection will be afforded to the present and potential beneficial uses of waters of the North Coast Region" (Section 2). Your staff's investigations of logging operations throughout the North Coast, however, have shown current regulatory efforts related to logging are failing miserably to prevent sedimentation and other damage to the beneficial uses of water. CDF and the Regional Board has admitted these problems have caused significant adverse cumulative effects in some watersheds, yet these problems, while certainly present in Freshwater, Elk River, Bear Creek, Jordan Creek, and Stitz Creek, are not limited to these watersheds and are pervasive throughout the region. In the last decade, the extent of damage from logging operations has been so great that nearly 20 rivers on the North Coast are now recognized as water quality impaired for pollutants related to logging. Sadly, most other rivers in our region are in equal or worse condition and should also be on this list. NOAA and EPA stated "silviculture is the leading source of impairment to water quality in the North Coast of California. Related to these water quality problems, California has a number of species, in particular salmon, that are endangered, threatened or otherwise seriously at risk, due in very significant part to forestry activities that impair their spawning, breeding and rearing habitat" (Findings for the California Coastal Nonpoint Program issued pursuant to the Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments of 1990. 1998).

When investigations by the staff of the Regional Board reveal that designated uses of watersheds are not being adequately protected, the Basin Plan gives a nondiscretionary duty to the staff to terminate the waiver for waste discharge reports and requirements:

"The Regional Board considers that implementation of the discharge prohibitions relating to logging, construction, or associated activities can provide appropriate protection to waters of the region from these sources of waste and, in the great majority of their activities, will waive the need for reports of waste discharge and waste discharge requirements. However, where investigations (by the staff of the Regional Board) indicate that the beneficial uses of water may be adversely affected by waste discharges the staff shall require the submission of Reports of Waste Discharge" (Section 4) (emphasis added).

Furthermore, Section 3 of the Basin Plan identifies two primary means through which our beneficial uses will be protected. This section states, in part, "These (water quality) objectives will be achieved primarily through the establishment of waste discharge requirements and through the implementation of this water quality control plan." Because only one of the two identified means to achieve water quality objectives is being employed by your agency for logging operations and this alone is failing to achieve these objectives, it is necessary for the Regional Board to begin utilizing the only other primary mechanism identified to meet the intent of our federal and state water laws by terminating the waiver of waste discharge requirements.

Each of the findings contained in the resolution which granted the waiver for waste discharge requirements has proven false over the years (Resolution No. 87-113). For example, the resolution states "Whereas, the Regional Board finds that a waiver of a report of waste discharge and/or issuance of waste discharge requirements for a specific type of discharge would not be against the public interest when the discharge is effectively regulated by other public agenciesŠ" As was acknowledged by Board members at their December meeting, CDF has failed to regulate logging in an effective manner and to prevent severe degradation of our beneficial uses. All of the numerous committees that have been formed to study the matter, from the "208 Team Report" in 1986 to the Monitoring Study Group in 1989 to Best Management Practices Effectiveness Assessment Committee in 1991 to the Little Hoover Commission in 1994, have come to this same conclusion. It has been studied enough, and the time has come for your agency to take action and begin fulfilling your role under the Clean Water Act and Porter-Cologne Water Act.

The resolution goes on to state that the Board found a waiver would not be against the public interest when the discharge is effectively regulated by the discharger pursuant to State regulations or guidelines. As weak as the Forest Practice Rules (FPRs) and their implementation have proven to be, violations of these rules occur regularly, and as the spotlight of Pacific Lumber's (PL's) logging practices has revealed, dischargers of logging related pollutants are not effectively regulating themselves under state guidelines. Most of this company's violations pertain to water quality problems, including over 100 in the last few years which were issued for violations of section 923 of the FPRs due to roads and landings constructed or maintained in a manner which threatened to harm or did cause harm to water quality. Additionally, 14 violations have been issued to PL for direct violations of the waste discharge prohibitions related to logging (contained in section 916.3 of the FPRs) since 1995.

Pacific Lumber is not alone in criminal logging practices, however. For example, one exemption logging operation in Trinity County caused severe water quality damage when heavy equipment was used inside the watercourse and lake protection zone, logs were skidded down a Class II watercourse for 50 feet which caused soil and debris to form a dam and visible turbidity in the stream, tractor roads were constructed in Class II and Class III watercourses, and trees were felled into the watercourse (CDF Inspection Report, June 29 ,1998, 1-97-EX-329 TRI). On another THP, 1-94-434, the CDF Inspection report states that "the Licensed Timber Operator (Columbia Helicopter, Inc #A-8409) operated on a landing within the WLPZ of a Class II watercourse without any provision for such use within the THP. Landing debris is piled within the WLPZ and also perched above the watercourseŠThe Licensed Timber Operator has failed to take action to prevent sidecast slopes and associated landing debris from discharging materials into a Class II watercourse in quantities deleterious to the quality or beneficial uses of water" (April 29, 1998). These, unfortunately, are only a few of the many, many examples where violations have caused severe damage to our beneficial uses of water.

The resolution further states that the Board found the waiver would comply with the Basin Plan and would not adversely affect the quality of or the beneficial uses of the waters of the State. Even when logging is conducted in accordance with the FPRs, however, they consistently violate all relevant sections of the Basin Plan and adversely affect the quality of our beneficial uses of water. The waste discharge prohibitions that pertain to logging and associated operations contained in section 4 of the Basin Plan are continuously violated by logging operations conducted under the FPRs. This, in turn, has caused and continues to cause violations of the water quality objectives for sediment, tastes and odors, colors, suspended materials, settleable material, turbidity, and temperature set forth in section 3 of the Basin Plan. Furthermore, these violations of water quality standards have caused and continue to cause many rivers' designated uses to become degraded, which is in violation of Section 2 of the Basin Plan.

Resolution Number 87-113 makes the waiver conditional upon the discharger complying with the Basin Plan. The relevant portion states:

Be it further resolved, that those specific types of discharges shown on the attachment to this resolution, except for those discharges for which discharge requirements have been adopted, must ensure compliance to applicable sections of the Water Quality Control Plans for the (North Coast)

Water Quality staff investigations of logging operations have shown current regulations do not ensure that discharges resulting from these operations will comply with the Basin Plan. As the current implementation methods of the Basin Plan are not working to meet water quality objectives, and as the only other means identified in the Basin Plan to achieve these objectives is through waste discharge requirements, the Regional Board must exercise its authority under Section 13269 of the California Water Code. This section is reflected in the resolution which granted the waiver, which states:

Be it further resolved, that this action waiving the filing of a report of waste discharge and issuance of waste discharge requirements is conditional and may be terminated for any type of discharge at any time.

Violations of the Basin Plan have been allowed to continue for much too long and have created a public nuisance which must be addressed. Each year the salmon return to their native streams in fewer and fewer numbers and more and more of the land comes down from hillsides weakened by logging operations. This is your opportunity to live up to your duties of protecting water quality, and to come closer to compliance with 40 CFR 131.12, the Clean Water Act, the Porter-Cologne Water Act, and the Water Quality Control Plan for the North Coast. Terminating the waiver of waste discharge reports and requirements is a vital component of this. We hope you will use this opportunity to make this and other improvements, and that we can all look forward to a day where our rivers and streams will run free and clean once more.

For All Aquatic Life,

Cynthia Elkins