{"id":631700,"date":"2026-05-08T22:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/631700\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T22:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:20:09","slug":"water-board-tosses-hrcs-proposed-regulation-changes-for-elk-river-because-sediment-levels-are-not-improving-lost-coast-outpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/631700\/","title":{"rendered":"Water Board Tosses HRC’s Proposed Regulation Changes for Elk River Because Sediment Levels Are Not Improving | Lost Coast Outpost"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Flooding along the lower Elk River, the largest tributary to Humboldt Bay. Photo: Screenshot, Water Board<\/p>\n

Humboldt Redwood Company\u2019s request to change the way sediment pollution is regulated on the Elk River was shot down by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board Thursday.<\/p>\n

Board members pointed to a lack of data showing sediment conditions on the river improving. A motion to adopt the changes failed, with four board members voting \u201cnay\u201d and only Dale Romanini and Jake Mackenzie in support.<\/p>\n

The changes surround Humboldt Redwood Company\u2019s (HRC) Waste Discharge Requirements (WDR), the primary regulatory mechanism for controlling sediment pollution from logging in the watershed.<\/p>\n

This rejection followed Water Board staff\u2019s assurances the changes would not reduce water quality protections on the river, which has been heavily impacted by sediment from logging operations, historic and present, and has regulations a staff member said were the strongest in the state.<\/p>\n

But environmental groups at the meeting swayed the board, saying instead the changes could increase sediment loads to the river, and argued the regulations should stay the same until marked improvement was recorded.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to imagine that increasing logging on 40% slopes, on any geology, would not bring down sediment,\u201d said Board Member Hector Bedolla, speaking of one requested change.<\/p>\n

HRC owns about 79% of the Upper Elk Watershed, according to Water Board documents. Under the 2019-era regulations, HRC can propose alternative practices, so long as they are equal or better than requirements in the original WDR. HRC sought a smattering of technical changes to the document.<\/p>\n

Jim Burke, Water Board senior engineering geologist, said during a presentation the changes were found to be \u201creasonable and appropriate\u201d by Water Board staff \u2014 who assured the board throughout the meeting they would not reduce water quality protections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis permit provides the strongest water quality protection of any permit in the state. The revisions preserve that high level of protection while better aligning the permit with real world operational conditions by allowing HRC flexibility in managing its forest while still complying with the [Total Maximum Daily Loads] targets,\u201d said Burke.<\/p>\n

Burke, who said he is regularly on the ground, said \u201cobservations of conditions on HRC timberlands in the Elk River by myself and my staff show minimal evidence of sediment discharge.\u201d<\/p>\n

But one environmental group took issue with specific changes.<\/p>\n

Katy Gurin, a CalTrout project manager, said the changes \u201chave the potential to increase erosion and sediment pollution by allowing more logging on steep slopes and near water courses.\u201d<\/p>\n


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Katy Gurin, a CalTrout project manager, speaking during the meeting Thursday. \u201cI want to see the river recover,\u201d she said. Screenshot<\/p>\n

The organization called for three items to be removed: one that would lower certain tree retention requirements, new allowances for logging on steeper slopes and a new allowance for group openings (removal of a patch of trees) near certain watercourses.<\/p>\n

Several board members noted surprise after hearing CalTrout\u2019s position on the topic \u2014 the organization is heavily involved with science and restoration in the watershed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was taken back by your comments, and they\u2019re in direct contradiction to what our staff is telling us,\u201d said board member Gregory Giusti.<\/p>\n

Other environmental groups, fishing advocates, the Blue Lake Rancheria and downstream residents whose properties flood every year spoke in opposition to the changes.<\/p>\n

Nuisance flooding has continued since Maxxam Corporation-controlled PALCO moved to massively increase harvesting in the basin during the late 1980s and \u201890s, causing thousands of cubic feet of sediment to stick to the channels.<\/p>\n

Flooding blocks the road and inundates properties along the Elk River during storms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not seen any improvement at all in either water quality or flooding,\u201d said Kristi Wrigley, who lives on her family\u2019s apple orchard, which was founded in 1903, on the north fork of the Elk River. <\/p>\n

She said last year, they had seven or six floods, one of which was the highest flood they\u2019d ever seen, and flooding has reduced usable land on the farm by two-thirds.<\/p>\n


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Jerry Martien, Elk River resident, said the regulations haven\u2019t improved the river. He read a poem that ended with \u201cwe should be cutting lies, instead of trees.\u201d Screenshot<\/p>\n

Board members hesitated to agree to the changes after hearing CalTrout\u2019s position, with multiple pointing to a lack of evidence showing a marked improvement.<\/p>\n

Environmental organizations, including Arcata-based Environmental Protection Information Center, pointed to previous Water Board documents and argued the changes ran counter to regulatory goals.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the meeting, during a general update on the Elk River, Water Board Engineer Lance Le gave a presentation on monitoring.<\/p>\n

On suspended sediment from 2003-2025, three monitoring stations showed an improving trend, while four had no trend. Meanwhile, the severity of ill effects were largely staying the same, with one station showing improvements and another worsening. The analysis, based on HRC data, did not analyze nuisance flooding.<\/p>\n

CalTrout\u2019s Gurin, said, from her reading of the data, \u201cThere\u2019s no improvement in suspended sediment at most stations, and there\u2019s no improvement in the severity of ill effects at most stations,\u201d and cast doubt on whether decades of regulatory work was effective.<\/p>\n

Mike Miles, an HRC forester who spoke during the meeting on behalf of the company, said these data points showed instead a lack of sediment coming off of hill slopes into monitoring areas, saying instead the data pointed to a decline of erosion or a static condition.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out water quality wasn\u2019t being monitored in the 1980s or 1990s, when a mass of sediment that is still clogging channels was released.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were to compare today\u2019s water quality with water quality of the \u201890s, \u201880s and \u201870s, you would see a big difference; there\u2019s no doubt about it in my mind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During a presentation he pointed to numerous restoration projects the company has been involved in, plus protection measures like barring clear cutting and old growth logging, and leaving larger trees for habitat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different way of doing forestry,\u201d he said, calling it progressive.<\/p>\n

Later, he said it\u2019s difficult to stand there after 100 years of forestry and try to represent the industry, \u201cbut that\u2019s not how we\u2019re managing our forest.\u201d He emphasized that HRC is trying to be in the same boat as partners and called for board members to come out to see the land.<\/p>\n

Some board members said the decision was tough.<\/p>\n

Following assurances the body could revisit the regulations at any time, like if monitoring showed sedimentation getting worse, Mackenzie leaned towards adopting the changes.<\/p>\n

He made a motion to move forward, with the removal of language that called Tan Oak a less desirable species (board member Molli Myers, a Karuk tribal member, pointed to the significance of the tree as a staple food source for local Indigenous groups).<\/p>\n

But a straw poll vote found there wasn\u2019t sufficient support.<\/p>\n

Other board members said they wanted to see improvements in conditions before making changes. Chair Alexandra Hart remarked it felt like the board was \u201cputting the cart before the horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board member Bedolla said he\u2019d like to see the trends improve before expanding logging.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we should be talking about what\u2019s going to make things better. It is our job to protect the water quality,\u201d said Myers; she said if water quality is not improving the board should not be increasing logging activities.<\/p>\n

Thus, with the non-vote, the requirements will stay the same. Board staff said HRC could propose changes at any time. <\/p>\n

The Board\u2019s legal counsel told them litigation could force a permit revision to come back before the board.<\/p>\n

The full meeting, which includes an update on efforts of the water board in the basin at large, can be found at this link.<\/a><\/p>\n

PREVIOUSLY:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Flooding along the lower Elk River, the largest tributary to Humboldt Bay.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-631700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}