Forestry Activities May Be Regulated

12/26/1999

According to the Society of American Foresters (SAF) "the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued proposed rules on the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) programs that could dramatically affect silvicultural activities in your state."  What does this mean?

A TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive as per EPA criteria.   These criteria will be used to identify and prioritize impaired waters. A NPDES will be the permit program used to implement the TMDL program.

The US forestry community is concerned that EPA is moving in the direction of imposing an "inefficient and potentially counterproductive system" upon states, and private industrial and non-industrial forest landowners. Forest practices traditionally off limits to regulation would now be regulated.  

Exclusion of these areas in the "point source" definition would not be allowed. In other words, many forest practices will now be considered point sources of water pollution. The following "new" silvicultural activities to be regulated under the NPDES as point sources are:

• nursery operations
• site preparation
• reforestation and subsequent cultural treatment
• thinning
• prescribed burning
• pest and fire control
• harvesting operations
• surface drainage
• road construction and maintenance

EPA's reason for the newly proposed regulations are, in part, because a 1989 Water Resources Bulletin that indicates that "Silviculture contributes approximately 3 to 9 percent of nonpoint source pollution to the nation's waters."  Twenty-three States have also identified silviculture as a problem source contributing to nonpoint source pollution in their 1996 water quality assessments submitted to EPA.

There is a comment period on these proposed regulations. The EPA web site addressing the comment period is http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/index.html.

Also, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition and Forestry held an oversight hearing on the proposed regulations on October 28, 1999. Testimony is available at http://agriculture.house.gov.

More Information from the Society of American Foresters

• Introduction
• What is a TMDL?
• What is a NPDES?
• Are all discharges from silvicultural activities currently excluded from the NPDES Program?
• Which silvicultural discharges would be designated under EPA's proposal as point sources subject to the NPDES program?
• Why is EPA proposing to remove the regulatory exclusion for these silvicultural discharges?
• When would silvicultural practices be required to obtain an NPDES permit?
• Where can I get more information?