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Introducing new sediment has never been seen as a problem. If it was they would have banned sluicing right along with dredging. Especially considering sluicing actually introduces NEW sediment into the stream in many cases if you're bucketing dry material to the river/stream to wash it.
You should see some of the holes/trenches that get dug out on the EFSG in the river during the summer. Entire swimming holes got mined during the low flow of the river last summer using shovels and buckets and stream sluices. Yes, it took much more manpower to excavate the amount of dirt that was sluiced compared to a mechanical dredge but the net result was the same. Streambed was excavated, gravels were displaced, mercury/gold/lead/iron was removed from the river. And no one cared.
This is purely a cash grab wrapped around saving the world from mercury so the Sierra Club can get a kickback from the $ they donated to Jerry Brown's campaign.
The "Leave No Trace" crowd hates prospecting/mining because we leave a trace. Doesn't matter if that trace is washed away in the flood season. Is a trace. You read comments anywhere on these subjects on other forums and it's always the same. Holes in the river. Loud and noisy. Smelly exhaust. Kills the fish eggs. Disturbs mercury.
It's a pile of misinformation that dredgers are dredging the salmon/trout runs in the middle of the spawning season sucking up fish eggs/blocking the flow of the river and at the end of the day cleaning out their sluices and pouring the mercury/lead/iron back into the river.
Dredging the river for mercury recovery and dredging the river for gold are the SAME thing.
Welcome to the world of Fake News. Tell a lie enogh and people eventually believe it's the truth.
Cannot support his position with facts, thus loses the debate. Resorts to name calling, sound familiar to anyone?
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According to the studies, the presence of dams have been the cause of stream bed impaction. By reducing raging torrents through the rivers and streams churning the material. That is how these ecosystems made it through the eons without us yokels. Instead of making fatuous statements, educate yourself.
You're right, the earth is in perpetual flux and I don't know that there is anything inherently noble about keeping things static at all costs. I also agree that a sensible approach strikes the right balance between the practical rights and needs of man and the value in being good stewards of the environment we all share and inhabit. I wish that all miners shared our sentiments, but it seems that some are so jaded by government intrusion to all facets of our lives that they immediately bristle at even scientifically-sound and well-intentioned attempts to regulate their activities. I'm no big fan of government regulation, but it usually stems from inadequacies in self-regulation. I've seen countless examples in farming, mining and elsewhere of what can happen when people and companies refuse to acknowledge that their choices have consequences or simply don't care who or what is impacted as a result. Personally, I think we lose a lot of credibility in the debate and in our attempts to reduce the more burdensome and unnecessary regulations when we put blinders on and don't engage in an honest discussion of the undeniable negative impacts that mining produces.
See, you meant exactly what you said. I'm just a yokel..by definition: An uneducated, unsophisticated person from the CountrysideRight. I just can't imagine how these ecosystems ever made it through the eons without a bunch of yokels out dredging...but keep fighting the good fight!