Opinion ID: 169168
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Water Quality Standards

Text: 33 UEC argues that the Trout Slope West project will damage water quality and thereby violate the 1982 regulations and the forest plan. Specifically, the 1982 regulations mandate that there should be no management practices that cause detrimental changes in water temperature, chemical composition, or deposits of sediment, all of which adversely affect water conditions. See 36 C.F.R. § 219.27(e) (1983). Similarly, the forest plan requires the Forest Service to [m]aintain or improve current stream channel stability ratings, II Aplt.App. at 427, and to maintain a biotic condition index of at least 75 in all streams, id. at 420. UEC argues that the project will adversely affect all of these standards. The Forest Service responds that the substantive standard of § 219.27(e) did not apply to the project's approval because the 1982 regulations were superceded in 2000. Regardless, it argues it complied with the regulations and the forest plan requirements concerning stream channel stability and the biotic condition index. 34 As is clear from our discussion above, the substantive standard of § 219.27(e) did not apply to the project's approval because the 1982 regulations were superceded in 2000. Again, however, there is no evidence that the Forest Service considered the best available science concerning water quality. Consequently, as with the monitoring of CRCT, the Forest Service must reevaluate the project's effect on water quality utilizing the best available science as required by the current NFMA regulations. For the same reasons stated above, we offer no opinion as to whether the Forest Service's evaluation of water quality complied with the best available science standard and the forest plan. See supra n. 11.