The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court's decision in the case of Georgia-Pacific West, Inc. v. NEDC, Sup. Ct. No. 11-347, commonly referred to as the "forest roads" case.
In a ruling announced this morning, the decision overturns a 2011 ruling by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court that reversed 35 years of regulation governing management of rainwater runoff from forest roads. Originally, the Ninth Circuit Court had rejected the Environmental Protection Agency's longstanding interpretation of the Clean Water Act and would have required forest road operators in the states under its jurisdiction to obtain Clean Water Act discharge permits for ditches, drains and culverts that channel rain runoff from their roads -- treating rain runoff from forest roads used for logging the same as industrial sources.
American Forest & Paper Association
(AF&PA) President and CEO Donna Harman issued the following statement today
in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that reversed the Ninth Circuit
court decision in Northwest Environmental Defense Center v. Brown (NEDC v.
Brown). The U.S. Supreme Court held that the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has authority to exempt discharges of channeled stormwater runoff from
logging roads from Clean Water Act point source permitting.
