Scott River under scrutiny by California agency

 

Scott TMDL out to public

 

-- Comment period begins.

 

By Liz Bowen, Pioneer Press Assistant Editor, Fort Jones , California

 

Pioneer Press, Fort Jones , California

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Vol 32, No. 46

Page  A1, column 2

 

SANTA ROSA , Calif. – The employees at the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board have released the Action Plan to improve “impairments” in the Scott River . The Water Quality Control Board is an agency of the State of California , but the Action Plan is being pushed by the federal Clean Water Act.

 

The Action Plan addresses Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of “impairments” that will be allowed in the river. Under the Clean Water Act the Scott River was listed in 1992 as “impaired.” Currently, the Action Plan addresses problems that are related to sediment and water temperature that is considered too high.

 

Projects and programs that the employees of the Water Quality Control Board believe will “fix” the sediment and temperature problems are explained in the Scott River TMDL Action Plan.

 

But local residents and groups are questioning if the “fixes” are attainable. Are they practical?

 

Local rancher, John Menke, along with the Siskiyou County Farm Bureau, SOSS, Siskiyou Resource Conservation District and Scott River Watershed Council have been involved in meetings held by the Board’s staff and are monitoring potential problems that may result from permits or regulations that will be established by the Control Board.

 

Menke has argued with the Board’s employees over the credibility of the science they are using. He has even gone so far as to write Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other elected officials, including deans at the University of California at Davis , where he was a professor of natural resource science for more than 20 years.

 

Comments will need to be written by local residents and landowners on the TMDL Action Plan. The plan was made available through the Water Quality Control Board’s office and website on Sept. 19. Public comment will be accepted until Nov. 2, 2005 .

 

Also two workshops will be held on the Scott Action Plan. The first will be held on Oct. 12 in Santa Rosa at the board’s Hearing Room. The next one is Oct. 18 at 6 p.m. in Yreka at the Best Western Miners Inn Convention Center . Oral comments will be accepted during each of the meetings.

 

The Control Board has no enforcement arm, but the staff seems to be taking a heavy hand in suggesting permits and regulations that will make landowners plant trees along the river; or reduce sediment from grading, roads, building homes, timber harvesting or other activities that may discharge sediment into the river.

 

Also a tailwater discharge permit or plan will need to be addressed by landowners under the current Action Plan.

 

To receive a copy of the Scott River TMDL Action Plan call the Regional Control Board at 707-576-2220.