Farm Bureau Joins Lawsuit
Telling EPA To Butt Out

YORKVILLE, Calif. — The American Farm Bureau Federation is joining a California family in a lawsuit claiming the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has overstepped its bounds.

Guido and Berry Pronsolino have restored and replanted 800 acres of heavily logged timberland along Garcia Bay near here, Farm Bureau officials say. Last September, the Pronsolinos obtained a permit from the California Department of Forestry to harvest 1.5 million board feet from their Copper Queen Ranch over a 15-year period.

But in March, the EPA restricted the amount of sediment runoff into the Garcia River from timber harvesting and restricted certain agricultural activities in the Garcia River watershed.

The EPA requires the Pronsolinos to inventory and control sediment runoff from the ranch, prohibits the Pronsolinos from harvesting certain areas of the ranch and prevents them from constructing or using roads or skid trails in certain areas. The suit claims this results in significant loss to the landowners.

"America's farmers and ranchers want to continue to play positive roles in efforts to protect our land and water," AFBF President Dean Kleckner says. "Guido Pronsolino has devoted decades to implementing some of the world's most environmentally sensitive timber production practices on his land. Despite his efforts, he must now comply with unfair, unlawful and arbitrary regulations that threaten the profitability of his timberland."

Kleckner says such costly federal regulations are pummeling farmers and ranchers at a time they can least afford it.

The lawsuit alleges the Clean Water Act requires states to identify and submit lists of water segments that fail to meet water quality standards due to point sources of pollution — that is, from any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance such as a pipe from which pollutants may be discharged.

The EPA, according to the suit, disapproved California's list because it did not include water segments, including the Garcia River. The EPA established a new list that included non-point source-impaired water.

Kleckner charges that the Clean Water Act does not permit the EPA authority to regulate non-point pollution sources in such a manner.

The Farm Bureau also claims that science-based data indicates the majority of sediment comes from natural sources rather than from agriculture or forest operations.

The Mendocino County Farm Bureau and California Farm Bureau are named as petitioners in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.