home > klamath river news > press release 5/26/09
For immediate release:
May 26, 2009
Contact: Scott Harding, Executive Director: 541-488-3553
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
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.
Klamath Riverkeeper has supported SB 670 and is also a co-plaintiff in a pending lawsuit against California Department of Fish and Game over their suction dredge mining program. “We have multiple avenues to seek a ban on this harmful mining practice until it can be scientifically evaluated and properly regulated. Today’s passage of SB 670 is the first step toward a legislative solution to this critical issue,” says Harding.
Klamath Riverkeeper is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to restoring the Klamath River and its tributaries, fisheries, and communities. Klamath Riverkeeper has offices in Orleans, California and Ashland, Oregon. For more information please visit www.klamathriver.org. For photos of suction dredging on the Klamath, please contact Scott Harding at Klamath Riverkeeper.
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