In short, the Supreme Court decision in Decker v. NEDC and the subsequent Congressional amendment to the Clean Water Act prohibits the EPA from requiring a NPDES permit for stormwater runoff from normal and ongoing silviculture under Phase I of their stormwater regulations. However, the petition filed by NEDC and EDC in December of 2014, now compels EPA to make a decision as to whether or not they will regulate stormwater runoff from forest roads under Phase II of the stormwater regulations - something they were ordered to do by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals more than a decade ago.  The industry plans to address several key areas in the Agency's request for relevant information. The following areas are those for which EPA requested information.

Leveraging existing effective federal, state, local, tribal, private, and voluntary BMP-based programs. Existing state BMP programs were developed by a network of partners, led by the states and already are highly effective at reducing risks to water quality. Thus, the "work" has already been done by the states (i.e., effective programs already have been developed and are effective at reducing stormwater runoff). There is no reason for EPA to come in and reinvent the BMP "wheel", so to speak.

Utility of addressing site-specific factors. Existing state BMPs were developed with site-specific factors in mind - no two roads or stream crossings are the same. Furthermore, the BMPs that work or are needed in the Pacific Northwest are not necessarily needed or work for logging in the Southeast, for example. Therefore, a 'federalized' BMP program will reduce, if not eliminate, a core strength of state BMP programs: the ability to address specific water quality concerns with site-specific BMP prescriptions.

The need to prioritize certain waters or focus on certain forest roads. This is already occurring and active forest management provides opportunities for landowners to address water quality concerns associated with forest roads. Forest road runoff and erosion models can’t reliably predict sediment delivery from road segments. Also, there is already ongoing and significant effort to improve BMP practices for stream crossings and problem road segments.

The benefits of accountability measures. BMP implementation rates are high regardless of whether the BMP program is non-regulatory, quasi-regulatory, or regulatory (i.e., 2015 NASF report for example). Forest certification standards (SFI, FSC, ATF) already provide accountability measures through third-party audits for landowners. Furthermore, accountability measures are already in place for wood procurement entities (e.g., loggers not implementing BMPs are typically dropped from the supply chain of mills that operate under the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard).

To read the NCASI Paper on Forest Roads, go to:  www.ncasi.org/Downloads/Download.ashx?id=7589