Our Issue: Central Coast State Water Quality Control Board Timber Harvest Waivers
July 2008 Update
The issue of streamlining the waiver process, so that project applicants could proceed with timber operations soon after the water quality application is submitted was brought up for discussion at the July 11, 2008 Water Quality Control Board meeting in Watsonville. This streamlining proposal came out of discussions with Big Creek Lumber who have worked hard on this issue.
Currently, after CDF approval of the THP, landowners must often wait for months for water quality staff to formally approve the waiver needed to commence harvesting. The Executive Director stated that, subject to the opinion of their counsel, that they were considering allowing the applicant to proceed with timber harvesting before formal approval of the waiver. Those applicants would be required to follow the Tier III monitoring protocol until their actual tier is determined. There was no indication how Tier IV (individual waiver) applicants would be treated.
This would be mutually beneficial to both landowners and water quality staff. Timber harvesting could commence soon after CDF plan approval, and water quality staff would have more time and less pressure to complete the paperwork. CCFA is hopeful that a solution to the unnecessary delays caused by water quality will be implemented in the near future. We will keep you posted.
June 2008 Update
The next public meeting of the Water Board will take pace on July 11, 2008 in Watsonville, CA. This is as close as they get to out territory. This would be an excellent time for landowners to attend the meeting and make their own comments on the timeliness (or lack thereof) of waiver processing and to see what progress has been made on processing all the data they have been collecting from us these past few years.
Until further notice, our issues remain:
• The unacceptable amount of time it takes to process a simple waiver.
• It’s time to see the statistics and have them show us how valuable the data we have been gathering is.
February 2008 Update
The CCFA Board urges our members to also weigh in on this issue. Send a letter to the Regional Water Quality Control Board demanding that they release the results of all of the monitoring they have been requiring us to do. It’s our time and money they have been wasting and we should at least get to find out whether or not anything useful is coming of this. The address to write to is:
Mr. Roger Briggs, Executive Officer
Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
895 Aerovista Place, Suite 101
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
View CCFA letter to WQ Board Feb 1, 2008.pdf
November 6 Update
Since the July meeting when the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board discussed the status of timber harvest waivers over the past year, we have not seen any change in the processing time or the procedure that will address the timeliness of obtaining a waiver. There was an interesting flip-flop from the opposition in this meeting. Previously, the environmentalists had requested that the waiver processing take place after the pre-harvest inspection (PHI). Now, they are requesting that Water Quality be involved during the PHI. We heartily approve this notion.
During the July meeting, Steve Dousman, one of our local landowners who had a waiver in process for his NTMP, testified about his experience. Shortly after that, his waiver was reclassified from Tier 3 to Tier 4, which is nearly like getting an individual waiver. Cate and Eric Moore of the CCFA board, who are also close neighbors, went to bat to testify in his behalf as his case was heard before the CCRWQCB in September.
Jodi Frediani and Kevin Collins, the usual opposition, was at the hearing. During the hearing it came out that:
* Part of their testimony included a five year old photograph that they were trying to present as current conditions.
* Despite having filed detailed objections to the Dousmans’ NTMP, they had not actually read the NTMP until the day before the hearing.
Furthermore, they did not object to being identified as being paid activists.
In the end, the CCRWQCB allowed Mr. Dousman to modify his waiver to remove the more egregious errors and granted him his waiver.
Below are several letters sent to the CCRWQCB stating our positions.
VanLennep Letter (pdf)
BOD Letter (pdf)
July 1 Update
Directors Cate Moore and Dick Burton, along with a collection of local foresters and landowners, attended the July 6, 2007 meeting of the Central Coast Water Board to express our dismay at the amount of time it takes to process a general timber harvest waiver. We are awaiting the actions of the Board.
View letter
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