Residents along the Elk River spoke at length Friday during a public forum of a North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board meeting. The board was taking a fresh look at the Humboldt Redwood Co.’s existing waste discharge requirement on the Upper Elk River Watershed, adopted in 2019. The water board was considering whether to reopen the case or keep it as is, and allow new logging to start in 2025 in what is considered high-risk areas and riparian zones.The discussion inflamed a long-standing issue about flooding — people’s homes and properties downriver fill with water and silt due to sediment from historic logging, and largely saw the extension of logging as a gut punch.“The lower part of the river is not going to fix itself. So why would you keep allowing more sediment to keep coming down?” asked Monte Lowe, a 60-year resident of the north fork of the Elk River.Christy Wrigley, whose family apple farm was decimated by flooding in 1997, showed a recent video of her home flooding. Since ’97, she said she and her neighbors have been trying to get state agencies to protect their water, land and homes, with no success.“Our safety, security and sanity are all sacrificed to one rich landowner. This is not finding balance. Every removed tree from the forest is another nail in the coffin of the upper Elk River community,” she said.Read More
