Our Issue: Central Coast State Water Quality Control Board Timber Harvest Waivers

What’s the deal?
As part of the process for getting a timber harvest permit, the State Water Quality Control Board is now in the picture, requiring a waiver before harvesting can proceed.  NTMP’s also require the waiver.  The waiver processing is taking inordinately long, often long enough to force the harvest into the next year.  Also, there are considerable additional expenses post-harvest for monitoring the watershed for up to five years after the harvest.

Why do I care?
The entire rest of the state can get a timber harvest waiver processed in ten to fourteen days.  The Central Coast Region is taking anywhere from a few weeks to timing out at 140 days, at which time the waiver is granted automatically. Since all of the data provided for the waiver outside of the location of the monitoring stations was reviewed in the timber harvest permit before the water control board processes the waiver, we have to wonder why this is taking so long. Since the Water Quality Control Board will not process the waiver concurrently with the THP processing, their additional time is often long enough to force the harvest into winter operations or the next year. For last year's July WQ meeting, the local foresters all signed a letter pleading with the Board to expedite this process (see below).  Nothing has changed to date. We need landowners who have applied for a waiver since last year, or are currently waiting for one, to show up at the July 6 meeting and demand action. 

Following the harvest, the landowner is responsible for providing monitoring information, including turbidity and water temperature, in locations that have included ephemeral streams (the ones that run dry in the summer). Since there has so far been no legitimate scientific tie between this information and the stream health and since the water control board staff continues to insist on measurements even when there is insufficient water running in some streams to gather legitimate data, we have to wonder about the value of this data. The water temperature data loggers are often required to be deployed in streams where there is water, but not enough water to gather data according to the instructions from the manufacturer. This leads to incorrect data showing a higher water temperature which is due to the data loggers being deployed in too shallow of water, and not due to a problem with a lack of stream side canopy leading to higher water temps.  

We also worry about the value of data gathered outside of context; thus far, we have seen no requirements for housing developments, parks and other public open space, or other land designations found intermingled with private forest land to provide similar data for comparisons.  It strikes us as a fishing expeditition.

Landowners are forced to acquire Water Quality data that is costly and scientifically questionable. They are doing so. So why is it taking so long to get a waiver approved? 

Where do I find more?
For the Central Coast Water Board’s meeting agenda’s and minutes, see: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/Board/Meetings/2007meetings.htm

The staff reports are appended as:
Item10_Attachment1.pdf, Item10_Attachment2.pdf,
Item10_Staff_Report.pdf

The letter from the foresters is appended as: Final Letter 6-26-06.pdf

What can I do?
To track the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board agendas yourself, check the following link: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/Board/Meetings/index.htm

Write to:
Mr. Roger Briggs, Executive Officer
Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
895 Aerovista Place, Suite 101
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

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