Just got this email from the C. Water Resources Board !!

Wiggler

Jr. Member
May 9, 2019
54
137
The Real Northern Calif.
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I just got this notice from The Ca. Water Resources Board . Im not holding my breath …..but …..

This is a message from the State Water Resources Control Board.
Interested parties,

Attached is a Public Notice regarding State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) staff release of a proposed statewide Suction Dredge Mining General Permit for a 45-day public comment period, a May 28, 2020 staff-level stakeholder workshop, and a June 17, 2020 State Water Board public hearing to receive oral comments on the draft permit. Please refer to the State Water Board’s Suction Dredge Mining Permit website using the following link to view the draft Permit and detailed meeting participation information for the upcoming stakeholder workshop and public hearing:
https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_is ... ining.html

Please contact Renan Jauregui at [email protected] if you have any questions.
 

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IMAUDIGGER

Silver Member
Mar 16, 2016
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Remind me again the difference between existing and proposed prohibitions...?
Am I the only one who apparently thinks slowly?
Isn’t the entire state prohibited at the moment (for the last 11 years)?

I HOPE someone brings this insanity to their attention in a rude but brutally honest fashion.

E0FA51F2-5401-4C6D-B631-C24AA1EEE018.jpeg


BA126448-2BC7-4319-8681-024106FEF7FF.jpeg

Tell you what..miners are the last people I would want to be standing in front of when they have all had enough. Historically it doesn’t turn out well and now isn’t the best timing.
 

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Wiggler

Wiggler

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May 9, 2019
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137
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Take a look at the map I posted..the areas that would be open to dredging are areas not shaded...
Being that areas with historical mining are excluded..my bet is regardless of the price, no place will be open that you would ever care to spend time dredging much less spend $ on equipment and fees and expose yourself to liability of the Tribes snapping photos while you dredge.

Bet your money they will follow up on every notification and "monitor" what your doing. Since they will know when and where you will be working it will be easy. Especially in the Salmon/Klamath rivers where this all started.

I did look at the map ……. I also have a list of rivers/ creeks that that are excluded from being dredged . One of those places is on one of two of my gold producing claims . I don't dredge there , I siphon sluice without a motor. This exclusion list a HUGE list...……
This is a fight on SO many levels . They want to make it super expensive to "possibly" dredge in places where it makes no sense to dredge …… seems that way to me anyway.
But if we must ….lets go down with a fight . This fight is in the best interest of the USA.

VOTERS have let this happen.
 

winners58

Bronze Member
Apr 4, 2013
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that's ridiculous. Why even have a permit when none of the areas "allowed" have gold.
Claims superimposed over allowed areas;
claims copy.jpg . np_claims.jpg
 

IMAUDIGGER

Silver Member
Mar 16, 2016
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that's ridiculous. Why even have a permit when none of the areas "allowed" have gold.
Claims superimposed over allowed areas;
View attachment 1833765 . View attachment 1833766

I was waiting for someone to do that overlay.
It might be helpful to have someone draft a more understandable map that depicts what you are showing.

Maybe the data is available in GIS format?

At least they are being open about their intentions (once you get to the end of the publication)
 

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Reed Lukens

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Jan 1, 2013
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They're not going to let you dredge legally in commiefornia... they haven't and they won't. People mining the miners include lawyers and politicians... move along...
 

gold tramp

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Dec 30, 2012
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Why don't you who hold paper, just go mine your claim ?
Then you can talk about prospecting and gold.
 

Colo Nuggets

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Nov 27, 2016
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Paysteaks are looking good, pulling good gold dredging lol. You can do the hit and run thing and make good money, I hope that some form of permit does come out. But there are those where it doesn't really matter we are still going regardless nothing has changed except the amount of time in the water. No permit will actually make you a better miner, your time is short, your more focused, no bs time, you can eat later etc and when the nozzle is hogging you already have a very good idea how much you make on your time slot. Sure makes things interesting hahaha. Plus you will keep your dredge in top condition
no time for breakdowns.
 

Clay Diggins

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Nov 14, 2010
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I was waiting for someone to do that overlay.
It might be helpful to have someone draft a more understandable map that depicts what you are showing.

Looks like you have been Californicated again. It's OK to dredge in areas where there is no gold as long as you pay a $1940 application fee and another $1940 for every two yards dredged. Hey bonus - they limited the no gold dredging cost to only $169,099 per season!

Looks like your state mining groups really helped things along. Dredge anywhere you want as long as there is no gold. Meet the federal 404 standards and declare yourself a point source polluter even though the courts have consistently said you aren't. Brilliant. Four drunk monkeys riding a three legged goat could have made a better deal.

Those don't look like HUC10 watersheds on those maps. I'm really busy these days but I'll see if I can put together a more accurate map on Land Matters.

Heavy Pans
 

brianc053

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...and another $1940 for every two yards dredged.
Is that the way the math works out? I didn't do the math to calculate how the fees were calculated. If that's the math - come on, that's crazy! Is it even possible to recover an ounce of gold from two yards of average (using California rivers as the context) gold-bearing river gravels? (I'm in New Jersey and only dredge in New Hampshire and Virginia; I don't think there's anywhere in those states where one could pull an ounce out of two yards of placer gravels).
 

winners58

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Apr 4, 2013
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the HUC10 hydrologic units (watershed) come from the EPA's approval for states to use them for TMDL's in state TMDL plans,
any watershed with 303d impaired waters can now be put into state plans with historic mining areas as the source
of arsenic, cadmium, mercury even if the streams are not on the 303d list as impaired, they just have to feed into an impaired stream downstream.
Californium wiped out all of their previous approved TMDL's in 2012, Oregon has been approved by the EPA to do the same,
they have closed my claims in the Bohemia district to dredging even though salmon are blocked by a dam, and none of the streams are on the 303d list.
the fight in California would now have to work on layers that have be piled on,
they have been moving more and more towards, what some would call communism
where everything is illegal unless its allowed...
 

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Wiggler

Wiggler

Jr. Member
May 9, 2019
54
137
The Real Northern Calif.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
the HUC10 hydrologic units (watershed) come from the EPA's approval for states to use them for TMDL's in state TMDL plans,
any watershed with 303d impaired waters can now be put into state plans with historic mining areas as the source
of arsenic, cadmium, mercury even if the streams are not on the 303d list as impaired, they just have to feed into an impaired stream downstream.
Californium wiped out all of their previous approved TMDL's in 2012, Oregon has been approved by the EPA to do the same,
they have closed my claims in the Bohemia district to dredging even though salmon are blocked by a dam, and none of the streams are on the 303d list.
the fight in California would now have to work on layers that have be piled on,
they have been moving more and more towards, what some would call communism
where everything is illegal unless its allowed...

Lets just cut through the crap and Get Gold . ….. I will. And Am . Legally ; ) So Be It .
Wiggler .
 

ncclaymaker

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Aug 26, 2011
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Why waste your time and MONEY in the nanny state of Californication. Take your cash to Nevada, Arizona and Colorado. Simply put... vote with your dollars. It makes no sense to support a system that chokes the life out of you, only because they can. Vermont did the same thing, and dredgers took their cash and went to Maine and New Hampshire. You could hear a lot of businesses sucking air from the sudden losses.
 

ncclaymaker

Sr. Member
Aug 26, 2011
370
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Champlain, NY on the Canadian border.
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Just went to the Suction Dredge Permits page of CDFW and looked at the bottom of the page... why am I surprised when it reads "License and Revenue Branch, Main Office: 1740 N. Market Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95834 | Sales Offices (916) 928-5805 | [email protected]". They are just going to suck the life out of dredging with reg's and extortionist frees. This sounds like the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act of 1917. They printed the stamps, but prohibited the sale of them. Californication at its' finest.
 

mike(swWash)

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If they follow Washington state's lead/stupidity, after following Oregon, who followed California and it all starts again in a big circle of ignorance.....They'll issue permits but not before you file for an initial permit for approval before you can file for another permit and then charge so much money for the last one that no one will apply and then it's all legal and constitutional......go figure ???

3 years then I'm going to a more sane state :hello2:
 

Paulo

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Oct 13, 2019
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Akin to what a few others often say, Why are we even debating the minutia of garbage legislation; as though it is some sort of 'win' for the state to even consider bestowing the privilege of paying yet more "fees" (tax) for severely limited access to properties on which WE HAVE FEDERAL MANDATED MINERAL POSSESSION...

It is my conclusion and contention that the Federal Watershed Act was the death blow to free market mining some 90+ years ago, whether or not it was created for that sole purpose may be debatable; regardless, it's certainly the keystone for the modern era of stripping working class people from participating in an economy independent of ponzi scheme currency wage slavery. oops, did i say that? I'm just kidding Alexa, please don't call the thought police...
No! I said "Don't call the thought police"...sigh..

Anyways, I am actually environmentally conservative and understand the state of affairs that inspired such legislation to be championed and adopted, however, the problem is that it never really stops the gross polluters, slows them down a little but with billions behind them, they get their approvals for their open-pit mine and eventual dam rupture which becomes the pervasive and indelible image for all things mining. But them is just my humble observations.
 

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