## Facts

- A timber harvesting plan (THP 520) covering roughly 700 acres in the Elk River watershed (Humboldt County) was approved in 1998 without a required sediment-monitoring program, though the regional water board had recommended monitoring.
- Pacific Lumber later acquired the property and THP 520 and sought multiple amendments, including Amendment No. 5 to support logging operations.
- The regional water board objected to Amendment No. 5, asserting the amendment lacked adequate safeguards for waters potentially affected by logging.
- The Department of Forestry approved Amendment No. 5 over the regional water board’s objection.
- After the amendment approval, the regional water board issued a monitoring and reporting order requiring a watershed-wide water-quality monitoring program aimed at measuring sediment-related effects (e.g., turbidity and related impacts).
- Pacific Lumber challenged the order, arguing that an approved THP under the Forest Practice Act barred the water boards from imposing additional requirements on the same logging operations.
- The trial court granted mandate relief invalidating the monitoring orders; the Court of Appeal reversed; the California Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeal.

## Issues

1. Whether the Forest Practice Act and its THP process provide the exclusive mechanism for addressing water-quality concerns from logging operations conducted under an approved THP.
2. Whether the state and regional water boards retain independent authority under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act to impose monitoring and reporting requirements on logging operations despite THP approval by the Department of Forestry.
3. Whether the Forest Practice Act’s savings clause preserves other agencies’ enforcement authority or instead is limited such that forestry regulation displaces water-board oversight.
4. Whether claim- or issue-preclusion principles (including collateral estoppel) bar the water boards from imposing monitoring after forestry approval of a THP amendment without such monitoring.

## Decision

- The California Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeal, upholding the water boards’ authority to issue the monitoring and reporting order.
- The Court held the Forest Practice Act does not make the THP process exclusive for water-quality protection and does not limit Porter-Cologne authority.
- The Court relied on the Forest Practice Act’s savings clause, which preserves other state agencies’ power to enforce laws they are authorized to administer.
- The Court found no implied repeal or irreconcilable conflict between the Forest Practice Act and Porter-Cologne and rejected the argument that forestry approval precluded later water-board monitoring orders.
- The Court rejected Pacific Lumber’s collateral estoppel theory, concluding THP approval did not bar the water boards’ separate statutory duties and orders.

## Legal Principles

- A statute’s express savings clause can preserve concurrent agency authority; the Forest Practice Act does not restrict other agencies’ enforcement of their own statutory mandates.
- Porter-Cologne independently authorizes the water boards to protect water quality through tools including monitoring and reporting orders, even when the regulated activity is also subject to THP approval.
- Implied repeal and statutory displacement are disfavored absent clear legislative intent or an irreconcilable conflict; overlapping regulatory jurisdiction is permissible where statutes can operate together.
- Approval of a THP amendment does not, by itself, preclude water boards from acting under a separate statutory scheme to address water-quality impacts associated with the same operations.

## Conclusion

The court held that approval of a timber harvest plan under the Forest Practice Act does not bar the state and regional water boards from exercising independent Porter-Cologne authority to require monitoring and reporting designed to assess and protect water quality affected by logging operations.


Pacific Lumber Co. v. State Water Res. Control Bd., 37 Cal. 4th 921 (2006)