CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Division of Forestry doesn’t have enough resources to routinely regulate forestry, so it’s passing some responsibility to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The catch: DEP says it doesn’t have enough resources either.
DEP Secretary Randy Huffman says his agency will help as much as it can, but much of what Forestry traditionally has done can’t be top priority.
“We just don’t have the resources to get to it,” Huffman said.
“We issue hundreds of other permits and we have an obligation to enforce those first.”
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The task of enforcing the “Logging Sediment Control Act” normally falls to the Division of Forestry. But these aren’t normal times.
Thirty-seven Division of Forestry workers — about one-third of the agency — were laid off in July in response to a $1.7 million projected deficit.
The agency and the state Division of Commerce have determined that Forestry would be stretched too thin to provide routine enforcement of logging regulations.
In the past, if a complaint about runoff from a logging site into a stream had come in to DEP, the agency would have forwarded the information to Forestry.
Now the opposite will be true.
“If we witnessed an event and traced it back to a logging operation, we would turn it over to the Forestry division,” Huffman said. “We’re not doing that now.”
Now, he said, “When a muddy water complaint comes to Forestry, they are referring to us.”
That means a lot of steps will be cut out of the process. Most importantly, state officials say, Forestry inspectors would have made earlier attempts to work with loggers to correct emerging problems.
Huffman said DEP just doesn’t have the resources to get involved that early.
“We already have muddy water (by then). The damage is done.”
Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette predicts a much shorter process: complaint, inspection, punishment.
“They’re now going to get a fine,” Burdette predicted this week.
Huffman said DEP would be enforcing a different part of state code known as the Water Pollution Control Act.
“Typically what we’d find is muddy water would be ‘condition not allowable,'” Huffman said.
“That notice of violation would turn into a penalty. It depends on the severity. If we assessed a fine, Forestry wouldn’t have anything to do with it.”
Since the Forestry layoffs, only 8 complaints have been forwarded to DEP. But Huffman notes that it’s been dry, and there’s potential for a lot more during rainier weather.
“It hasn’t been overwhelming. It has potential.”
Dan Cooley, who has been in charge of Division of Forestry’s Region 2 operations, which covers many of West Virginia’s most heavily logged counties, is concerned that DEP’s newly-broadened role won’t work out well.
“It has been said that DEP will be handling the complaints. It is a joke,” Cooley said. “They are not doing this, and neither do they want to.”
Cooley is worried that the results will be direct and devastating.
“We are entering the dry season and there is not much chance of muddy water or flooding, but it will come. Starting about Thanksgiving all the way through June, is the most likely time for mud in the streams and the greatest flood potential.”
Huffman shares that concern.
“This could deteriorate so when it does rain, the consequences could be worse.”