California: Enviro suit against water board says they’re stalling for industry

A coalition of conservation and fishing groups Wednesday filed a
lawsuit contending that California water quality officials have failed
to do enough to clean up streams and rivers along the North Coast.
Many North Coast rivers suffer from two much sediment and nutrients
and occasionally high temperatures. Conservationists contend that the
pollution comes from logging, grazing, farming, mining and from the
runoff off dirt roads.

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The lawsuit claims that the North Coast Water Quality Control Board
and state water board have taken too long to implement action plans to
clean up more than 15 waterways from southern Sonoma County to the
Oregon border. The rivers include the Russian, Navarro, Albion, Eel
and Mattole. “We’re hoping to both restore the health of these rivers
and to provide the cool clean water for these salmon populations to be
restored,” said George Torgun, an attorney with the Oakland-based
environmental legal group Earthjustice.

In 1995, some of the same conservation groups took the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to court and won a settlement in which the federal agency agreed to set pollutions limits for the region’s rivers. With the exception of the Klamath River watershed, that work has been completed. The suit
contends that except for three rivers, the state has failed to complete specific action plans for reducing pollution on each waterway. Among the organizations that joined in the lawsuit are the Sierra Club, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and conservation groups for three river watersheds.

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