The Washington Post reports that the timber industry hopes that “the U.S. Supreme Court will maintain business as usual on controlling muddy water running off logging roads into salmon streams.”

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently ruled that federal regulators should treat stormwater on industrial timberlands the same as pollution discharge from a factory. According to the news release, the “ruling on an Oregon case would apply to logging roads on state, private and national forest lands throughout the jurisdiction of the 9th Circuit, which covers much of the West.”

The article reports that, “Tom Partin, president of the American Forest ResourceCouncil, said increased regulation would cost money and offer conservation groups new opportunities for blocking logging without producing any cleaner water.”  He added that, “Over the years, we have been able to continually improve our practices as we have learned more about the environment.”  Partin added, “Water flowing from our forests is high quality.”

Since the issue is now going to the high court, the president of the National Alliance of Forest Owners, Dave Tenny, questioned the need for EPA to “continue developing new regulations for logging roads.”

The article concludes that an EPA spokeswoman referred comment to the U.S. Department of Justice, which declined to comment on pending litigation, when asked whether the EPA would continue working on new regulations.

This article posted July 3, 2012.