The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has decided stormwater runoff
from logging roads should be considered water pollution – and
need to have a federal permit before they're built. The court
concluded the groups building logging roads in Tillamook county
had violated the Clean Water Act by not obtaining stormwater
runoff permits from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Stormwater permits are required for many other kinds of road-
building and development, but until now haven't been required
for logging roads on state forestland in Clatsop and Tillamook
counties. The court ruled the dirt and gravel discharges that
rainwater flushes off the roads and into ditches, culverts,
channels and, ultimately, forest streams and rivers are, indeed,
coming from "point sources" as defined by the Clean Water Act.
Thus, they require a pollution discharge permit (National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, to be exact).
This could be a big deal for logging and forests in the
Northwest – depending on how tricky it is to