Environmental Law Matters

The U. S. Supreme Court's March 20, 2013, decision in Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center is good news for the logging industry. The Clean Water Act (Act) and EPA's Silvicultural Rule (Regulation) do not require National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for discharges of chan ­neled stormwater runoff from logging roads. Permits will be required for logging operations that involve rock crushing, gravel washing, log sorting and log storage facilities. Georgia-Pacific West had a contract with Oregon to har ­vest timber from a state forest. When ...