EPA to Revise Regulations: Logging Roads Need No Discharge Permits

According to a May 22 article by Alan Kovski from Daily Environment Report, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will issue a rule to specify that logging roads do not need discharge permits for storm water runoff from logging roads, according to a notice released May 21.

The administration brief was due at Supreme Court May 25 to appeal logging roads case.

The rule is intended to protect the status quo on logging roads—on both public and private land—by specifying that they should be operated under best management practices, often developed by states, rather than regulated with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits under Section 402 of the Clean Water Act.

The EPA notice was expected to be published in the May 23 Federal Register. EPA said it will use its authority under Section 402(p) to specify that storm water runoff from logging roads are not discharges “associated with industrial activity.”

The agency said that section of the law “allows EPA to consider a range of regulatory and non-regulatory approaches and determine which forest road discharges (if any) should be regulated under 402(p)(6).”

EPA's action is a response to a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that said NPDES permits are required for logging roads wherever water runoff is channeled in some fashion, because ditches, culverts or other channels create pollution “point sources” requiring NPDES permits. That 2010 ruling, reaffirmed in 2011, upended a couple decades of EPA policy in which the agency has not required permits.

Since then, Congress has added a temporary ban for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 on the requirement of discharge permits for logging roads. Forest owners, timber companies, 27 state governments and other interested parties also have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to accept an appeal of the case.

You can read the full article here. 

Source: Bloomberg BNA