Posted on October 11th, 2010 in Dust Control, Environmental by Bob Vitale
Here’s a hot topic to keep an eye on. The Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC) sued Oregon State Forester and several timber companies because sediment from the logging roads was polluting salmon streams and killing fish. Additionally they claim they did not have NEDC stormwater permitting they were breaking the law. In some places the TSS was more than 2000 times the regulatory levels!
First court said NEDC lost because the timber industry is exempt because of Siliviculture Laws and related agricultural laws. However the 9th District court overturned, saying that the discharge was illegal and that agricultural laws did not allow exemption from discharges from point sources and that the Oregon EPA did not have the right to change the definition of point source. There reasoning was the sediment was carried by ditches, culverts or channels (all man made) that they were discrete conveyances and therefore point source discharges requiring by law NEDC permitting.
Court also ruled that EPA has to write regulations to reduce sediment delivery into waters of the US from point sources. This is EPA region 9 and covers: OR, WA, CA, AZ, NV, ID and MT. Read entire article.
What should be noted is that these are considered low-volume roads and can easily be treated to solve this dust control/soil stabilization problem.
There have been similar lawsuits, notably one in Pennsylvania where runoffs from dirt and gravel roads where effecting trout streams. After regulations where created, Midwest had two of their products approved for use to help solve the problem.
It is reasonable that the EPA will jump on this and create new regulations. With 7 states involved, this is no small issue.
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