PALCO facing bankruptcy? Official says no comment
by Glenn Franco Simmons
A Pacific Lumber Co. official told The Eureka Reporter
that the company has no comment about an L.A. Times article
today that says the company could face bankruptcy.
According to the article, PALCO needs to have more timber harvests approved
by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, if it is going
to sustain its mills and keep its employees working.
Erin Dunn of PALCO said company officials were still reading the article
and did not have a response for media at that time, which was mid-morning
today.
The Pacific Lumber Co. owns 220,000 acres of timberland in <?xml:namespace
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/>Humboldt County that is zoned exclusively for timber production.
PALCO would like to harvest timber in nearly a dozen areas that are
contested by some property owners and homeowners, such as some in the
Elk and Freshwater watersheds outside Eureka.
In an interview today, Mark Lovelace of the Humboldt Watershed Council
said, In considering our petition for a stay on the Regional Water
Boards permits, the state board determined that the stay would
not have harmed PL, saying, PALCOs presentation relied very
heavily on speculation and a worse-case analysis that seems highly unlikely
over the relevant time frame.
The watershed council asked for a stay on the board granting permits,
but the water board approved the permits. The L.A. Times reported there
are 11 more permits that PALCO wants the board to approve.
The water board has jurisdiction over logging, to the
extent that logging can erode soil that ends up in waterways
which are under the boards jurisdiction.
PL is basically saying that (it) cannot operate at any level other
than 100 percent, Lovelace said. If PL is structured so
inflexibly that it cannot accommodate normal peaks and valleys in its
operations, then that is no ones fault but (its) own.
The company has contended that most of the soil-erosion problems are
the result of past logging practices when environmental regulations
were not as strict as they are today.
However, some of the homeowners and property owners in the Freshwater
and Elk River watersheds contend that increased logging has led to siltation
of streams, more water run-off from slopes, contamination of wells and
other problems.
Landsliding and erosion due to the accelerated rate of logging
in the 1980s and 1990s have caused these stream channels to fill in
with sediment to the point that they simply cannot carry the volume
of water they once did, Lovelace said. In addition, PLs
logging has increased the amount of water that comes off the slopes
and into the streams. So there is more water going into a smaller stream
channel, and that causes flooding. Flooding that used to happen a couple
times per decade now happens four to five times a year.
Lovelace says flooding is more than an inconvenience.
This flooding has harmed peoples health and
safety, their property and their liberty, he said. Many
people in these watersheds have had to raise their homes above the rising
floodwaters, or build walls around them. People have suffered loss of
their wells, water supplies, septic systems, livestock, fences and other
damages.
Additionally, hundreds of residents in these watersheds are trapped
in their homes virtually every time it rains. This means they cant
work, or they cant get home to their families, or they cant
get emergency medical care if needed. Other residents have lost their
businesses due to destruction of their farms, or loss of livestock.
We are worried that eventually, if the situation doesnt improve,
someone is going to lose their life.
According to the watershed councils Web site, The Humboldt
Watershed Council is an organization of Humboldt County residents and
property owners who are concerned with the degradation of our watersheds,
and the tremendous impact this has upon our safety, property, and quality
of life.
We believe that maintaining the health of our watersheds is important
not only for wildlife and the environment, but for the people and industries
that call Humboldt County home.
(Glenn Franco Simmons can be reached at glenn@eurekareporter.com.)