Efforts to unclog a river
A very similar story of slow progress, competing interests, and uncertain outcomes can be told with the efforts over the past 18 years to regulate water quality on the Elk River.
The Regional Water Board (RWB) is the agency entrusted with ensuring that the Elk River water quality meets federal and state standards. They were compelled to take action because the excess sedimentation in the Elk River is diffuse across a large area and therefore considered a "non-point source" of pollution, which is regulated by the federal Clean Water Act and the state's Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. The RWB takes its responsibility seriously and has been working diligently with stakeholders in the community, commissioning extensive independent and peer-reviewed scientific studies, holding hearings, soliciting online feedback, and drafting proposed regulations.
The RWB is attempting to establish limits on the flow of new sediment into the Elk River by issuing Waste Discharge Requirements (WDRs) and setting pollution limits through a metric called the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). Although local timber companies have improved their practices since the 1990s and adhere to forestry best practices (limits to clear-cutting, no harvesting in buffer zones adjacent to waterways, repair of roads and stream-crossings, etc.), they have vigorously challenged any proposed limits to their allowable harvests as recommended in the independent scientific studies.
In 2017, the RWB made a determination that the Elk River had "zero assimilative capacity for sediment,” which means that the stream channels are so completely clogged that no more sediment can be discharged from industrial timber operations. However, the timber companies are still being allowed to cut timber in the area under new harvest plans. Even if they adhere to forestry best practices, no one doubts that runoff from future logging in the area will eventually result in more sediment discharge into the Elk River.
Whether it is the agencies entrusted to protect the fisheries, the forestry regulator issuing timber harvest permits, or the RWB attempting to clean up the water, in each case lobbying efforts and opposing political and economic interests intervene to undermine or slow down recovery plans for the Elk River.