Logging roads exempt from EPA rule
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February 7, 2014 |
Federal, state, county, tribal and private
forest owners, along with farmers and ranchers,
will benefit from language, included in the Farm
Bill, signed into law by President Barack Obama,
Senator Mike Crapo said today.
The Silviculture Regulatory Consistency Act,
more commonly known as the forest roads
legislation, introduced by Senators Crapo
(R-Idaho) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), would codify
positions taken by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Supreme Court that
forest roads used for logging activities will
not be subject to EPA discharge permits as
initially intended by Congress.
“Idaho, along with states throughout the
country, will benefit from the inclusion of this
language in the Farm Bill,” said Crapo.
“Continually subjecting the job creators in our
rural logging communities to more and more
litigation notwithstanding the positions taken
by the EPA and the Supreme Court is wasteful and
burdensome. Maintaining a healthy timber
industry that promotes jobs and preserves our
forests in a responsible way must be our
priority. Through the president’s signature, a
38 year-old program that deferred the regulation
of logging road runoff to individual states and
avoided duplicative and overly burdensome
federal compliance will rightfully continue.
Private, state and federal land managers have
been successful at mitigating environmental
impacts from stormwater runoff on forest roads
for 38 years. I am confident this law provides
them the certainty to continue to do so going
forward.”
Along with Crapo and Wyden, the Silviculture
Regulatory Consistency Act was introduced in the
Senate with Senators Max Baucus (D-Montana) and
Jim Risch (R-Idaho). Companion legislation was
introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives
by Representatives Jamie Herrera Beutler
(R-Washington), Kurt Schrader (D-Oregon), Dan
Benishek (R-Michigan), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas),
Jeff Duncan (R-South Carolina), Cathy McMorris
Rodgers (R-Washington), Nick Rahall (D-West
Virginia), Reid Ribble (R-Wisconsin) and Mike
Simpson (R-Idaho).
The act was introduced in response to a decision
by the Ninth Circuit declaring that forest roads
are by law “point sources” and must be
considered for federal regulation under the
permit program for stormwater discharges.
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the portion of
the Ninth Circuit’s decision that point source
permits are mandatory for forest roads, but the
Court did not reverse the Ninth Circuit’s
holding that ditches and culverts along forest
roads are defined as “point sources” under the
Clean Water Act.
The language included in the Farm Bill codifies
that forest roads and other practices in EPA’s
silviculture rule are not subject to EPA
discharge permits, thereby enabling the
continued regulation of forest roads using state
best management practices.
The provision also permanently protects forest
owners from citizen lawsuits challenging
compliance with any EPA measures addressing
stormwater discharges. |
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