[env-trinity] More on Water Quality Board Appointments-

[Tom Stokely]

Regional water board vacancies filled; Governor appoints 4 to key North Coast panel that sets policy on rivers, logging
Santa Rosa Press Democrat - 2/19/05
By Mike Geniella, staff writer 

 

For the first time in years, the powerful North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board will be functioning with all nine members.


Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger filled four vacancies this week, ending a long period in which the Santa Rosa-based water board struggled at times to maintain a quorum for meetings.


"It's been too long," said Jean Lockett, a chief administrative aide for the water board.


The new water board members are Heidi Harris, a Humboldt State University instructor; Dennis Leonardi, a Ferndale dairy owner; Clifford Marshall, tribal chairman of the Hoopa Valley tribe; and Sari Sommastrom, a natural resources consultant who lives in Siskiyou County.


They join William Massey, a Santa Rosa Junior College instructor; Beverly Wasson, a grape grower in the Alexander Valley; John Corbett, a Humboldt County attorney; Gerald Cochran, Del Norte County assessor; and Richard Grundy, a Sonoma County engineering consultant.


Water board decisions play a major role in shaping the environmental, political and economic fates of a region running from Sonoma to the Oregon border. The board frequently finds itself at the center of controversies over water quality, river flows, logging practices, and regulatory moves to protect the region's fisheries.


Currently, the North Coast board is engaged in a bitter struggle with Pacific Lumber Co. The regional agency has delayed 12 timber harvest plans sought by Pacific Lumber, citing concerns about landslides and flooding in the Elk River and Freshwaters watersheds in southern Humboldt County. Pacific Lumber has taken its fight to the state Water Resources Board, which oversees the state's nine regional boards, warning that it may have to lay off hundreds of workers and file bankruptcy if the North Coast agency doesn't bend.


While contentious timber harvest practices loom large on the water board's monthly agendas, the agency's scope is far-reaching.


In December, the board imposed a $250,000 fine on a Willits couple who allegedly clogged two salmon-bearing creeks with sediment while bulldozing their property for a vineyard.


Earlier in 2004, the Sonoma County Water Agency came under fire from the North Coast board for the amount of herbicide that was being used along creeks to kill grasses and small trees. The agency ended up replanting some of the creek banks to satisfy the board's concerns.


In another area, the state board is working with Sonoma County's Environmental Health Division to develop safe water standards for swimming in freshwater rivers and streams, a move that could expand to rivers and streams throughout Northern California and the state.#

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050219/NEWS/502190331/1033/NEWS01

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