Ruling On Logging Road Runoff & SRSP Payments To Be Cut

Ruling On Logging Road Runoff & SRSP Payments To Be Cut

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned a 2010 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which stated that stormwater running off logging roads was subject to Clean Water Act rules as a “point source” of pollution; finding that the EPA’s prior decision to exclude logging road runoff from Clean Water Act permits was a reasonable interpretation of the law. According to the Supreme Court’s ruling the agency was within its authority in finding that Clean Water Act regulations only apply to manufacturing, processing and storage in fixed locations, not to the harvest of raw materials from different areas.

The Secure Rural Schools Program was put into place as a result of declining timber harvest on federal lands. Nearly a year ago Congress approved, and President Obama signed into law, an extension of payments totaling over $323 million under the Secure Rural Schools Program to provide rural counties with funds for teachers, schools, police officers, emergency services and infrastructure. These payments went out this January, with Washington state receiving over $20 million. The U.S. Forest Service has now announced it will be retroactively subjecting those SRSP payments to sequestration cuts, and demanding refunds. Doc Hastings, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee had this to say in response to the announcement.

HASTINGS: To suggest that something that has already been allocated - and then you have to send money back, that just defies logic. I can understand you do that prospective, but I just don’t see how you can do that retroactive. But I think the political motivation of the administration is to make things as painful as possible, and this is one way to do that.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network.