June 14, 2000

EPA exempts forestry from rule to crack down on polluted runoff

By JOHN HUGHES
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it will exempt loggers, tree farmers and other forestry operators from a rule set to take effect next month to reduce water pollution from private lands.

The move is a major victory for the wood products industry, which aggressively fought the rule and sent the agency 30,000 post cards voicing opposition.

"They finally heard the loud uproar across this country ... that what they were proposing simply wouldn't work," said Chris West, vice president of the Northwest Forestry Association in Portland, Ore.

The EPA will propose a new rule later this fall that would cover forestry practices, said Charles Fox, assistant EPA administrator for water. But that rule has an uncertain fate -- it would be up to a Bush or Gore administration to decide whether to enact it.

The rest of the rule, which would affect farmers and other private landowners, should become final in about a month, he said.

Fox said criticism directed at the forestry portion of the rule was distracting attention from the overall plan to clean up the nation's waterways.

"There's no question that the industry mounted an extremely aggressive and no doubt expensive campaign," he said. "Much of the information they put out was not entirely true, if not downright false in some cases."

Forestry groups said under the rule, private landowners would need an EPA permit to cut down or even plant trees. The expensive and time-consuming process would put some small forestry practices out of business, the groups feared.

But Fox said 99 percent of forestry operations would not have been affected by the rule. Only a few problem polluters would have been required to get EPA permits, he said.

Opposition also came from states like Washington and Oregon, which already regulate private forestry lands and say new regulatory tools are not needed.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., sponsored legislation to exempt the forestry industry from the rule. Other lawmakers hope to derail the rest of the proposed rule before it takes effect.

The rule proposed last August requires states to submit plans to clean up every waterway that fails to meet water quality standards for fishing, drinking and swimming, among other categories.

EPA estimates more than 20,000 streams and lakes don't meet water-quality standards, or about 40 percent of all lakes, rivers and streams in the nation.

States would be required to say how much pollution should be allowed from indirect sources, such as farmers or parking lot owners who send polluted runoff into streams.

Landowners would be required to get a pollution discharge permit if the EPA found they were contributing to nearby water quality problems -- and if a state had failed to draft an adequate plan for improving water quality.