Idaho river dredgers want it all in effort to snub feds

Rep. Paul Shepherd, R-Riggins, is sponsoring a bill, approved in committee and headed for a House vote, that says the state comprehensive water plan "shall allow for recreational prospecting and small-scale dredge mining without regulation, restriction, limitation or prohibition." It also exempts dredge miners from state laws prohibiting the alteration of stream channels, as well as state water quality requirements.

LINK (via: The Spokesman-Review)

Take Action: Protect wild steelhead from suction dredge mining

An important action alert from the Wild Steelhead Coalition:

Wild steelhead depend on cold, clean, undisturbed gravel in creeks and rivers to spawn. But a growing kind of hobby mining that uses gas-powered vacuums to literally suck up the riverbed is posing a serious threat to habitat that wild steelhead, salmon and trout depend on.

This suction dredge mining produces only small amounts of gold, even the miners admit you can’t make a living on it. But in the process, it obliterates salmon and steelhead redds, kills off important aquatic insects and fish fry, and contributes to harmful sedimentation, erosion, stream channel alteration, and pollution.

Currently, there is almost no regulation on suction dredge mining in Washington’s salmon, trout and steelhead habitat. Even in waters closed to all angling to protect ESA listed runs, suction miners can continue vacuuming up the streambed.

Thankfully, a strong cast of state legislators have proposed House Bill 1162, which would require WDFW to initiate and complete a scientific study that evaluates the effects of motorized mining on native fish species and related habitat.

Submit a comment online to tell your legislators you support HB 1162!

Or email committee chairman Representative Brian Blake (D-Aberdeen) and tell him you want this bill moved forward.

Sensible regulations on suction dredge mining to protect our iconic wild steelhead, salmon and trout is, well, common sense. HB 1162 is a step in that direction. Show your support and speak up for wild fish! 

The feds can't come in here like storm troopers and start running our lands and rivers"

Leave it to Fox News to refer to miners illegally suction dredge mining on Idaho's Salmon River as activists. 

A group of miners began illegally dredging for gold this week in Idaho’s Salmon River to challenge what they call federal government overreach into the waterway, Reuters reported. They are protesting regulations by the EPA that forbid suction dredging and other mining in the river in order to protect the habitat of endangered fish.

LINK 

Suction Dredge Mining Reform Action Alert

An important action alert from Native Fish Society.

Following California’s 2009 moratorium on the practice, Oregon has seen a dramatic increase in suction dredge mining activity, which impairs water quality and threatens critical salmon, steelhead, trout and lamprey habitat.

Suction dredge mining involves prospectors locating gold by sucking up stream and river bottoms through a gas-powered, floating vacuum. This mining technique leaves behind altered river bottoms, suspends previously undisturbed mercury deposits, and damages essential salmon habitat and spawning gravels.

Native Fish Society is asking for your help to protect native salmonids and lamprey habitat by supporting the increased regulations currently being proposed by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). DEQ is in the process of revising the 700PM permit that will dictate suction dredge mining regulations for the next 5 years. Specifically, the Native Fish Society would like your help asking DEQ to restrict suction dredge mining in streams and rivers with designated Essential Salmonid Habitat (ESH).

TAKE ACTION NOW

Gold Miners Frustrated by New EPA Permit

Idaho suction dredge hobbyists miners are crying the blues about having to obtain an EPA permit which helps prevent violations of the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.

LINK (via: MagicValley.com)

At least 36 mining claims have been filed along a 30-mile stretch of the river

Idaho fly fishers and conservation groups are stepping up to back the Clearwater National Forest in challenging the rash of placer mining claims being filed for the North Fork of the Clearwater River.

Kathy Rodriguez, ranger of the North Fork District of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, said suction dredge mining is incompatible with a number of other uses of the river and she will ask an administrative law judge from the U.S. Department of Interior to prohibit mining there.

LINK (via: The Spokesman-Review)