By Gregg Stevens – North Coast News, July 19, 1990
The Elk County Water District has joined the Greenwood Watershed Association in a lawsuit to halt timber harvests along Greenwood Creek and its tributaries until they are sure the logging will not hurt Elk’s water supply.
Because of past erosion, the town well, primary source of water for Elk, now sits within 20 feet of Greenwood Creek. Residents are worried that logging planned by Louisiana-Pacific on steep and unstable slopes upstream could flush excessive silt into the stream, and eventually, the well.
If that happened, the town would either have to increase treatment costs or switch to another water source, neither of which the small rural water district can afford.
At a special meeting July 11, the water district’s Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to join the lawsuit against the California Department of Forestry and Louisiana Pacific.
Board members said the district was never notified, as required by state law, about the harvest plans, which could have a drastic effect on the water system.
The groups want a complete study of the watershed and Elk’s water system before logging is approved.
The lawsuit is unique, because it is based on the water supply of a community. Its outcome could have far-reaching effects, and it is being closely watched by other watershed organizations in Northern California, the Sierra Club, timber companies and state agencies.
Like most towns in this area, Elk came into being as a logging town. Logging operations are currently being done on Elk Creek and on the surrounding ridges with no opposition from residents.
The Greenwood Watershed Association, a diverse group of about 50 local residents, property owners and water users, was organized to monitor timber harvest plans made for this watershed after it was discovered that a proposed cut was within a half mile of the well. This particular cut was denied due to a technicality (one adjacent landowner hadn’t been notified) but two others were approved farther upstream.
The Watershed Association members believe that these planned cuts had been rubber-stamped with insufficient input from the state Department of Fish and Game and the Water Quality Board and in direct conflict with concerns raised by the Elk Water District, the County Board of Supervisors and the Mendocino County Water Agency.
According to a letter from the Watershed Association to the Water District Board, “Clearly, we cannot rely on the California Department of Forestry, or any other state agency, to ensure the health of our environment and our water system. By all accounts, they have not been doing their job—and it is our judgment that they only way to get proper attention paid to our concerns is to sue them.”
A related concern raised by the suit involve cuts proposed along the upper reaches of Greenwood Creek, even though it is a known spawning ground and is off limits to fishing year-round.
The suit was filed in Mendocino Superior Court in Ukiah on July 16 by Susan Brandt-Hawley, attorney for the watershed association. Brandt-Hawley has in the past represented other organizations in an attempt to halt logging in environmentally sensitive areas, notably along the Albion and Navarro rivers, (suits there are still pending) and logging near Schooner Gulch, which has been halted.