California Bill Banning Recreational Suction Dredge Mining Sails Through Senate with 31-8 Vote
Senator Wiggins’ SB 670 Would Place Moratorium On Suction Dredging Until Scientific Review and New Protections Are In Effect
FishNLand.com
06/17/2009
Sacramento, CA – Showing its concern for the state’s ailing fisheries,
the California Senate passed SB 670 with a 31-8 bipartisan vote.
Senator Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) introduced the bill that places
a moratorium on recreational suction dredge mining until a scientific
review of the mining practice is completed and new rules protecting
fisheries, water quality, and public health are in effect. The bill was
widely supported by dozens of Tribes, conservation organizations, and
commercial fishermen.
In today’s floor debate, Senator Wiggins highlighted the fact that
California’s salmon fishermen were out of work while a small group of
miners continued to practice a hobby that destroyed salmon habitat. She
also emphasized that SB 670 does not limit less environmentally
destructive mining practices or take away property rights.
California’s taxpayers heavily subsidize the state’s suction dredge
permit program through the California Department of Fish and Game. The
state spends $1.25 million more per year on the permit program than it
receives in permit fees, amounting to a $400 subsidy for each of the
3,200 miners that obtain permits.
Scott Harding, Executive Director of Klamath Riverkeeper said,
“It’s good to see California stop spending taxpayer money on a mining
program that puts a few flakes of gold in 3,000 hobby miners’ pockets
while harming fisheries and those who depend upon clean, healthy
rivers. California is experiencing a fiscal crisis and a fisheries
emergency. SB 670 helps to solve both these problems at once.”
Suction dredge mining takes place directly in river and stream channels
using a floating, gas-powered vacuum coupled to a sluice box. The
miner, sometimes with the aid of SCUBA gear, vacuums sediment, gravel,
and small rocks from the river bottom. This material is then run
through a mechanized sluice on the floating platform. Gold flakes are
separated from the sediment, which is spit back into the river in long,
murky plumes.
Suction dredging represents a chronic and unnatural disturbance to the
river and is known to harm fisheries, aquatic habitat, and degrade
water quality. It can stir up leftover mercury pollution from
historical mining activity and reintroduce it into the food chain,
creating a public health problem. Depending on size, location and
density of these machines they can turn a clear running mountain stream
into a murky watercourse unfit for swimming and destroy salmon spawning
habitat.
Recreational mining businesses and prospecting clubs, such as the New
49’ers in Happy Camp, CA, bring hundreds of suction dredgers to the
Klamath and its tributaries each year. California’s regulations of the
mining practice are more lax than in other states, making it a popular
destination for hobby miners. At times, ten or more suction dredges
can be found in one river mile on the Klamath and several hundred
dredges are estimated to be operating within the watershed at one time.
