Features

EUREKA – State senators plan a new showdown Wednesday over fellow Democratic Gov. Gray Davis’s stewardship of the state’s environment – this time over alleged inaction by his appointees that protected a key campaign contributor. 

The Senate Rules Committee is scheduled to consider blocking several of Davis’ appointments to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board amid charges the board permitted years of environmental damage by Pacific Lumber Co. 

A Davis spokesman denied any special treatment of Pacific Lumber or undue interference with the board. 

Since January, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, has blocked Davis’ Board of Forestry appointees to protest the administration’s logging policies. 

Now, senators also are questioning whether the regional boards should have delegated much of their oversight authority to the Department of Forestry. 

Critics are upset the North Coast board in particular hasn’t resolved a problem that first surfaced before Christmas 1994, when Freshwater Creek overflowed its banks and stranded residents near the Humboldt County town of Freshwater. 

The flooding worsened the next two winters in five waterways, damaging salmon habitat and residents’ water supplies. 

By 1997, the regional water board’s staff determined the fault lay with Pacific Lumber Co., which, at the direction of its parent company, Houston-based MAXXAM Inc., spent a decade denuding the surrounding hills, triggering mudslides and intense erosion while frequently violating the state’s Forest Practices Act. 

The California Department of Forestry promised to curtail logging – but did so only for a year before approving more intensive timber cuts the last three years. 

The water board ordered reforms, but Davis’ election in 1998 led to changes of board members. Davis also installed a politically connected chairman with ties to Pacific Lumber, attorney Daniel Crowley of Santa Rosa, who countermanded the professional staff’s decisions. A previous chairman, Bill Hoy of Weed, told reporters he agreed to delay board hearings at the Davis administration’s request because so many board members were new or awaiting reappointment. 

Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio said the board operates independently. 

“Of course, when the administration has concerns, they’re expressed,” he said. “They’re solid appointees who make decisions based on science, not politics, and the governor expects the Senate to approve them.” 

Pacific Lumber did not comment despite repeated requests Tuesday. 

However, the company contends, in letters circulated as high as Davis Cabinet secretary Susan Kennedy, that the state is obligated to let the company keep logging at a high rate to insure its “economic viability” under the 1996 Headwaters Agreement that protected a stand of old-growth redwoods. 

California Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility alleged two years ago that Kennedy, in January 2000, ordered state regulators to “bend over backwards” to speed up Pacific Lumber harvest plans. 

Davis has received $450,000 from the timber industry toward his re-election, including $105,000 within months before his administration blocked a $22 million tax on the timber industry this spring. Maviglio denied any connection. Pacific Lumber contributed $25,000 in February, on top of nearly $27,000 the previous two years. 

Wednesday’s hearing comes a week after disclosures that a different Davis-appointed water board approved increased pollution into San Francisco Bay shortly after Tosco Corp. gave $70,500 to the governor’s re-election fund. 

In the case of the North Coast board, critics cited board members’ inaction. However, on Friday and Monday, board executive officer Susan Warner issued erosion abatement and monitoring orders against Pacific Lumber. 

“It’s good that they’re finally doing something, but it’s sad that it’s taken so long and it took a senate confirmation hearing and the wrath of John Burton to get them to take action,” said Cynthia Elkins of the Garberville-based Environmental Protection Information Center. 

Warner said her action flowed from the board’s direction at an April meeting that drew residents’ ire for what was perceived to be continued inaction. But she said she “was expeditious in moving it forward” to beat the pending confirmation hearing. 

Board member Richard Grundy said critics’ impatience is understandable, as the board “historically operated on the principle, ’don’t make waves.”’ He said the current board will be more active after a slow start, unless it is stalled by a new round of vacancies. 

The intense logging has triggered community outrage and impassioned protests beyond affected property owners and environmental groups that have dogged Pacific Lumber for years. 

Environmental groups are using the North Coast board as an example why the state and regional boards should stop delegating water quality oversight to the Department of Forestry. 

Timber companies and timberland owners fear another layer of bureaucracy. The regional boards say they haven’t the employees or money to review timber harvest plans, though environmental groups suggest the cost could be covered by logging fees.