ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION INFORMATION CENTER
For Immediate Release
CONTACT: Sam Johnston, EPIC
(415) 752-7166 September 30, 2005
Maxxam/Pacific
Lumber Slapped with Logging Violation Notice
Santa Rosa, CA -- In a brazen move, Maxxam/Pacific Lumber
Co. (Maxxam/PL) began logging
in the contested "Bonanza" timber harvest plan (THP # 1-05-097
HUM) on Tuesday, September
27 without the required authorization from the North Coast Regional
Water Quality Control
Board (Water Board). After logging an unknown amount of the 250-acre
plan, the illegal logging
was stopped by the company.
Accordingly, on Thursday, September 29, Maxxam/PL was
served a Notice of Violation by the
Water Board for logging without a required permit.
According to the Notice of Violation, Maxxam/PL began
logging the Bonanza plan without first
having obtained enrollment under rules known as the General Waste Discharge
Requirements.
The rules are required of Maxxam/PL to protect water quality against
the harmful cumulative
effects that the company's logging wreaks on watersheds.
The Bonanza harvest plan contains the largest unprotected,
contiguous, occupied marbled
murrelet stand left on Maxxam/PL's land. Last year, a comprehensive
Status Review for the
murrelet, prepared by a blue-ribbon panel of top murrelet researchers,
warned that if current
trends continue, the endangered species faces a very high probability
of extinction in California
within a very short time. Despite the clear implication that Maxxam/PL's
Habitat Conservation
Plan is inadequate to ensure survival or recovery of the murrelet, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service has inexplicably released the Bonanza murrelet stands for harvest.
It remains unknown to what extent the Water Board's Notice
of Violation will prevent further
harvesting in the Bonanza plan. The company is now required to submit
a written report to the
Water Board on Friday, September 30, describing the illegal activities
and the reason the activities
took place in the absence of authorization by the Water Board.
"Maxxam's liquidation plan for Humboldt County's
old growth forests has yet again run afoul of
the law," said Sam Johnston, Private Lands Campaigner for EPIC.
"The fate of California's
marbled murrelets and the old growth forests they depend on - not to
mention the fate of the
human communities that depend on the health of these watersheds - should
not be determined by
a rogue Houston outfit - Maxxam Corp.- whose subsidiary, Scotia Pacific,
is flouting the law and
draining the resources of Humboldt County just to pay interest on its
massive corporate debt,"
added Johnston.
Ongoing uncertainty about a prospective corporate reorganization
was stoked on September 27
when Maxxam/PL's timber-holding subsidiary, Scotia Pacific LLC, called
off negotiations with its
noteholders. Responding in a press release, the noteholders stated their
intention of ultimately
spinning off Scotia Pacific into a company separate and independent
from its current parent,
Pacific Lumber. Pacific Lumber is a subsidiary of Maxxam Corp., which
is based in Houston, Tx.
Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters (BACH)
2530 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94702
phone: 510 548 3113
email: bach@headwaterspreserve.org
http://www.HeadwatersPreserve.org
