The California Department of Fish and Game has released draft amended regulations for the use of suction dredges in the state’s rivers and creeks. While this means the ban on suction dredge gold mining, enacted a year and a half ago, eventually will be lifted, it does not look as if the new rules will extinguish the ire between gold miners and tribes and environmentalists.
The DFG has been working on amending its 1994 suction dredge regulations for more than a dozen years now, and was spurred to complete the task in 2006 by court order after the Karuk Tribe sued the agency. The tribe said the existing dredge rules didn’t protect species, such as the coho salmon and green sturgeon, in the Klamath, Scott and Salmon river watersheds on the North Coast that were listed under the Endangered Species Act after 1994. Dredging, they say, can entrain fish eggs and larvae, as well as stir up sediment that pollutes the water and in some cases contains toxic substances, such as mercury — a byproduct of the old hard-rock mining days.
DFG failed to meet the court-ordered spring 2008 deadline to make the new rules, and so in August 2009 Gov. Schwarzenegger banned dredge mining until the rules were completed.
The proposed new rules, released Monday, Feb. 28, concern everything from the size of nozzles and hoses to dredging seasons. Earl Crosby, the Karuk Tribe’s watershed restoration coordinator, said on Tuesday there’s good and bad in the document. On the plus side, he said, the new regulations would expand the no-dredging zone radius around the confluences of numerous rivers and their tributaries in order to protect what are called thermal refugia — cold-water zones where fish retreat when the mainstem of their river is too warm. Previous rules, set last year under the Clean Water Act, require a 300-foot no-dredge radius in order to restrict sediment pollution in the water; the new DFG dredge rules add 200 feet to that radius.
On the down side, said Crosby, in some areas the proposed rules allow dredging at times that conflict with spawning fish.
“And during these times they’re open for dredging, you still have green sturgeon coming into the system, you still have the Pacific lampreys coming into the system,” he said.
He’s also worried that some areas have been opened to dredging that used to be off limits, including Red Cap, Dillon and Bluff creeks, and much of the Salmon River — a river of particular concern to the tribe.
“You know, we just saw local environmental groups ask for spring Chinook to be ESA-listed, and one of the last places in the Klamath Basin where those fish go to spawn is the Salmon River,” said Craig Tucker, Klamath Coordinator for the Karuk Tribe, last month. “So it’s a classic example of a place where there’s an at-risk population of salmon that needs to be protected.”
Tucker said that areas where mercury is in the sediments also should be off-limits to dredging. In late January, the United States Geological Survey released a report that affirmed what previous studies by the Karuk Tribe and others had hinted at: Dredging in places where there’s fine sediment, and which are downstream from old-time mining operations that used mercury to extract gold from rock, releases the mercury trapped in the sediments. The mercury becomes methylmercury in the water column, floats downstream and is absorbed by fish and, presumably, by people who eat those fish. The USGS found higher levels of mercury in fish downstream from such dredging on the Yuba River.
Mark Stopher, the DFG’s Environmental Program Manager, said his agency knew the results of the USGS study before they were published and that they informed his agency’s decision-making on the dredge rules.
“We shall not issue a permit if it is going to be deleterious to fish,” Stopher said.
Crosby, however, worries that the DFG doesn’t always have the final say. For instance, one proposed new rule says that dredgers must not disturb mussel beds — but it’s up to them to decide if they’re doing that.
“So, if you have so many mussels per square yard, [DFG] wants you to cease and desist and move the dredge to another location,” Crosby said. “But that’s not enforceable. I mean, if somebody finds their pay streak, I don’t think they’re going to stop just because they’re mining through a mussel bed.”
All this talk over where or where not to dredge is just nonsense, says attorney James Buchal, who represents the New 49’ers club in these matters.
“The Native American tribes, they have a bunch of, I would call, idiotic theories — like, for example, about these so-called ‘cold water refugia’ and that dredging hurts fish,” Buchal said in a recent interview. “In fact, if you’re mining, the fish will come up and swim around the dredge and they are happy about it. They tend to cluster around the bottom of it because, if the miners are sucking this stuff off the bottom of the stream, there are occasionally nice things in it to eat.”
He added that dredgers actually remove 98 percent of the mercury from the sediment if it’s present — and which would wash downstream, otherwise. He can’t see why the USGS and others are hung up on the remaining 2 percent left behind.
“In the context of ecosystems, is it better to remove 98 percent of it, or is it better to leave it there because it was a human being that was removing it?” he said. “I don’t understand the fundamental logic of the attack.”
You can view the DFG’s draft supplemental environmental impact report for the proposed new suction dredge rules at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/suctiondredge/, at the library in Eureka, and at regional offices in California (the closest one to us is Redding). The public comment period ends 60 days from Feb. 28. Public meetings are March 23 in Santa Clarita, March 24 in Fresno, March 29 in Sacramento and March 30 in Yreka.
This article appears in Species Rising.
Can’t we all just get along. I want to go back dredging. I want to protect the fish. I want to contribute to the economy of the small town I used to operate my gold dredge in. I buy food and gas and made a lot of good friends, an extended family in fact. So, now the Department of Fish and Game is moving forward on their review. Thanks for your efforts Fish and Game. I’m ready to pay you the permit fees and have your oversight. I just want to get back dredging, a seasonal venture that does not occur during spawning season and when the fish eggs are in the gravel before they hatch. I like being under the water looking back at the little fish eating bugs as they spill out of the sluice box. I know there is a lot of polarized biased gut level feelings by all. But, bottom line, if the miners are not hurting the environment and helping the small town economies, cant we all just get along?
The mining act of 1872 needs to be abolished, period! If you want to look for gold, do it the way the original 49er’s did it, with a gold pan. James Buchal calls the First Nation Peoples “theories idiotic”, well, he should look in the mirror. Besides, how would he/you know what a “happy fish” looks like? Hummm… Mercury cannot be removed from the ground except with very sophisticated equipment. It should be removed anyway as with all toxic wasted sites. We can get along with out greed.
Stop exploiting the earth European people. Cars should be abolished, period! If you want to come to this country you should do it the way your ancestors did, on a boat. And you should have left your horses in Europe, walk when you get here Europeans! The internal combustion engine is the biggest polluter ever invented. But in this day and age these arguments are silly, Mr/Ms Stop Exploiting the Earth. I surely hope you don’t ride in cars, otherwise you are a hypocrite. A gut level response without thinking on your part. Learn to think before you post. 🙂 And learn to be happy too.
Has anybody read about the damage that commercial fish farms are doing to the wild salmon???
This is a problem that concerns miners and environmentalists because then both will understand that its not mining that is decimating the salmon, its commercial salmon farms.
There is no way that 100 miners could move the amount of dirt that happens during the yearly flood. Here is an exceptional year at the bottom of this page.
http://mcguiresplace.net/Stories-Water%20is%20Gold/
So Mr. Buchal, you say that the miners are removing 98% of the mercury. How do you know this percentage or did you just pull this number out of your a$$? How do the miners handle this toxic heavy metal? Where do they legally dispose of it? I think you are just blowing hot air and have no real answers to this b.s. talking point of yours.
This article includes a very wrong and misleading claim by New 49’er, James Buchal, and failed provide expert knowledge to offset his ugly and untrue statement. Buchal called cold water refugia an “idiotic theory” of Native American tribes. This is unintelligibly nonsensical. Refugia are physically real; definitely not a theory. I have more than 10 years of professional salmon biology experience in northern California. Main stem river temperatures at tributary confluences are significantly cooler than most of the river from late Spring into the Fall. Any recreational swimmer will notice this. Cooler water contains higher dissolved oxygen concentrations and is crucial to the survival of juvenile salmonids. I have snorkelled the Klamath River in the Summer. Juvenile Chinook Salmon are noticeably absent in most of the warm river and highly concentrated in cold water refugia at tributary confluences.
Buchal continued by saying that fish are “happy” about food stirred during dredging. Fish will certainly take advantage of an unnaturally provided meal. However, this short term benefit to a few individuals is a long term detriment to their population. Dredging resorts substrates in which specific runs of salmon have evolved to spawn. Also, the most irresponsible of miners will dredge spawning areas while eggs are incubating. A few fish may be “happy” to get a meal, but while thousands perish.
Seasonal regulations where I used to be allowed to dredge didn’t allow us to dredge when eggs were in the gravel or during fry emergence. Most miners are responsible citizens just like most fishermen are responsible citizens. Fishermen and fisherwomen kill many more fish than miners ever have in recent history (hydraulic mining and the days of mercury tables are gone thank God).
Hook and release sport fishing kills more fish than miners do. Just shut down fishing altogether if you want to protect fish for real. But that’s not an economic or cultural reality is it? And I do support tribal fishing rights with gill nets and hoop nets for food and cultural values. But shutting down dredging will not bring back the salmon, as some of the largest runs on the Klamath, during the mid 1980’s, occurred when a lot of dredging was going on by myself and many others. Irresponsible fishermen and fisherwomen are called poachers and kill lots of fish. There’s lots of poaching going on and it’s not just homeless people as Pat Higgins suggested in the article in this issue of the Northcoast Journal about the salmon population recovery this year on the Eel River.
Let’s work to protect our fishery.
And in the process let’s stop pointing the middle finger at each other and learn to work together to truly protect our valuable fishery while allowing us to mine with seasonal restrictions that protect this valuable resource at the same time. Too much BS and not enough science caused the ban on dredges in the first place. Dredging was even banned on streams with no salmon as a result of the latest legislative action based on spurious lawsuits. Learn to be happy and respect others, including salmon. Bottom line. 🙂
I agree that most miner’s and fishermen wish to do what is best. The sharing of knowledge, non-hostile debate, and open-mindedness can reduce damage to rivers. I’m not an opponent of gold mining as long as further damage to rivers are minimal.
Two points:
1. ‘Gold Miner’s’ stated “Hook and release sport fishing kills more fish than miners do.” This is misleading. There may not be much incidental mortality associated with dredging compared to rare and negligible mortality associated with recreational fishing. But the habitat alteration may significantly and negatively effect the future of the population.
I have seen first hand on the Klamath River dredging activity by miners on spawning grounds in October, which coincides with the Chinook salmon spawning season.
some autoformatting business made my comment above come out all weird
Thanks for your thoughtful input Steelhead Steve. Back in the 1970’s I enjoyed commercial fishing as well as mining. Personally hoping for the recovery of Spring Run Chinook; they used to occupy quite a few Klamath River tributaries that I frequented. Pretty amazing fish for sure and I’m all for working to see their recovery, on a personal level at least. Hope the kids can experience being commercial fisherwomen one day. Gold fever and fish fever are not so different. Times sure have changed in my short lifetime though.