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Miners angry about proposed regulations
There was plenty of anger to go around Wednesday at Redding City Hall as some 80 miners turned out to lambaste a new state law to regulate suction dredge mining.
Under the law passed in 2015, the California Water Board is required to issue permits to miners who want to use the motorized dredges to get gold out of streams.
Water Board staff members held a workshop in Redding on Wednesday to take comment on whether the state should issue the permits, under what conditions and what miners would be required to do to offset potential environmental harm done by the mining.
“Should the state Water Board issue a permit? Emphatically no!” said James Foley, who lives along the Klamath River in Siskiyou County.
“Should certain protective practices be required? No. There is no harm from suction dredging,” he said. “What prohibitions should be applied? I say none.”
Out of the more than 30 commenters at the meeting, only one person in the audience spoke in favor of the permits. The rest disagreed with the premise that suction dredge mining harms the environment or fish.
Suction dredge mining has been prohibited in the state since 2009 because state officials are concerned about the environmental effects of the practice, which involves using a pump to suck materials from the bottom of a stream and run it through a sluice to separate gold.
Much of the concern centers around dredges kicking up mercury from stream beds. The mercury then gets into the food chain, causing a buildup of methylmercury in fish, according to the state.
Miners, however, say the dredges remove toxic metals. The dredges also can kick up sediment and disturb cultural sites, according to state officials.
Suction dredging also destroys salmon and trout salmon nests, said Forrest English, a program manager for Klamath Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy group. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife is also required to change its suction dredge mining permits, but that is a separate process.
English said he would prefer the state not issue any permits. English did not attend the meeting in Redding, but went to the board workshop held Tuesday in Orleans in Humboldt County.
“The Water Board needs to either not permit this type of suction dredge mining or in the alternative put very strong protections in place where resources are not at risk,” English said before Wednesday’s meeting.
Miners said they were worried the permitting would be so complex, burdensome and expensive that they would not be able to afford to go through the process.
“But if you must (require permits), create a simple permitting process, one that is inexpensive and can be rapidly processed,” said Shannon Poe, president and CEO of the American Mining Rights Association.
Most at the meeting said mining was a way of life to them and they use mining to supplement their income. Creating a burdensome permit process would prevent that, they said.
Poe said miners are not environmentally irresponsible.
“It is a miner who has a real property mining claim. He pays taxes and is being denied the ability to feed his family due to ideology and not facts,” he said.
There was plenty of anger to go around Wednesday at Redding City Hall as some 80 miners turned out to lambaste a new state law to regulate suction dredge mining.
Under the law passed in 2015, the California Water Board is required to issue permits to miners who want to use the motorized dredges to get gold out of streams.
Water Board staff members held a workshop in Redding on Wednesday to take comment on whether the state should issue the permits, under what conditions and what miners would be required to do to offset potential environmental harm done by the mining.
“Should the state Water Board issue a permit? Emphatically no!” said James Foley, who lives along the Klamath River in Siskiyou County.
“Should certain protective practices be required? No. There is no harm from suction dredging,” he said. “What prohibitions should be applied? I say none.”
Out of the more than 30 commenters at the meeting, only one person in the audience spoke in favor of the permits. The rest disagreed with the premise that suction dredge mining harms the environment or fish.
Suction dredge mining has been prohibited in the state since 2009 because state officials are concerned about the environmental effects of the practice, which involves using a pump to suck materials from the bottom of a stream and run it through a sluice to separate gold.
Much of the concern centers around dredges kicking up mercury from stream beds. The mercury then gets into the food chain, causing a buildup of methylmercury in fish, according to the state.
Miners, however, say the dredges remove toxic metals. The dredges also can kick up sediment and disturb cultural sites, according to state officials.
Suction dredging also destroys salmon and trout salmon nests, said Forrest English, a program manager for Klamath Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy group. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife is also required to change its suction dredge mining permits, but that is a separate process.
English said he would prefer the state not issue any permits. English did not attend the meeting in Redding, but went to the board workshop held Tuesday in Orleans in Humboldt County.
“The Water Board needs to either not permit this type of suction dredge mining or in the alternative put very strong protections in place where resources are not at risk,” English said before Wednesday’s meeting.
Miners said they were worried the permitting would be so complex, burdensome and expensive that they would not be able to afford to go through the process.
“But if you must (require permits), create a simple permitting process, one that is inexpensive and can be rapidly processed,” said Shannon Poe, president and CEO of the American Mining Rights Association.
Most at the meeting said mining was a way of life to them and they use mining to supplement their income. Creating a burdensome permit process would prevent that, they said.
Poe said miners are not environmentally irresponsible.
“It is a miner who has a real property mining claim. He pays taxes and is being denied the ability to feed his family due to ideology and not facts,” he said.
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