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March 21, 2013

Forest industry lauds top court's runoff ruling

The forest industry in Maine and across the country is counting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Wednesday as a big win. The ruling exempts logging companies from needing Clean Water Act permits for stormwater runoff from logging roads.

Reuters reported Wednesday that the nation's top court ruled in a 7-1 vote, with Justice Stephen Breyer recused, that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was correct in exempting logging road runoff from CWA permit requirements.

Pat Sirois, director of the Maine Forest Product Council's Maine Sustainable Forestry Initiative, told the Bangor Daily News that if the EPA required that permitting, logging "operations would grind to a halt."

The dispute arose when the Northwest Environmental Defense Center challenged the EPA's decision that logging roads do not fit within the type of industrial activity regulated under the Clean Water Act.

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