No dredging for 5 more years in CA

[nvchris]

Action Needed Now

California considering 5-yr moratorium on dredging in current budget bill

Sorry to bother you, but we just received word that Subcommittee 2 in the California State Senate is considering adding language to a budget bill that would place a moratorium on suction dredge mining for a period of five years and stop the court-ordered Supplemental Environmental Impact Report that is already under way.

Page 39 of the agenda for tomorrow, May 12, 2011, states:

Staff Recommendation: Approve the following:

(1) Trailer bill language to continue the moratorium on issuance of suction dredge permits for an additional five years, or until such time as new regulations that fully mitigate all identified significant environmental impacts, and a proposed fee structure that will fully cover all program costs, are in place.

(2) Approve Budget Bill Language prohibiting any funding at the department from being used for suction dredge mining regulation, permitting or other activities.

The recommendation is based on the faulty premise that the suction dredge permits only cost $25 and the program creates a net-loss for the California Department of Fish & Game.

When SB 670 was passed the bill clearly stated that passage of that bill would negatively impact DFG and that enforcement activities were covered by permit fees. Here is the exact wording from the bill:

FISCAL EFFECT of SB670: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, loss of approximately $175,000 in annual revenue each year the moratorium is in effect, resulting from loss of suction dredge permit fees (Fish and Game Preservation Fund). Currently, fee revenue pays for suction dredge permit enforcement at the cost of approximately $50,000 per year, activity which will presumably continue during the moratorium.

Here is what you need to do tonight:

Only three Senators -- all part of Subcommittee 2 -- will decide whether or not to add the above language to the budget bill at this time. Call each one of them tonight. There is no time to send a letter -- you must call. If their mailboxes are full, then you must call them in the morning to make an impact.

Phone numbers:

Sen. Lowenthal (916) 651-4027 and (562) 495-4766 and (562) 529-6659

Sen. Simitian (chair) (916) 651-4011 and (408) 277-9460 and (831) 425-0401

Sen. Fuller (916) 651-4018

Here is the info they need to hear from you:

1. The Background info supplied to the Committee is inaccurate. DFG does not lose money as a result of the suction dredging program.

2. The stated fee structure in inaccurate. The cost for permits are $47.50 in-state, and $167.25 out of state ( a far cry from the $25 stated in this Background proposal)

3. PLEASE VOTE NO for the moratorium on suction dredging

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Scott Harn

Editor/Publisher

ICMJ's Prospecting and Mining Journal

www.icmj.com

Supporting Documents:

May 12, 2011 Agenda for Subcommittee 2, California Senate

Fiscal Impact of SB670

[Ridge Runner]

Can anyone in Ca. see how much money that is lost by stopping dredging.You would think that a state that is in trouble like Ca. would be saying come one come all and bring lots of money plus dredge as much as you want.O'h pay the same as locals for dredging permit.

I'm done planing on taking my money and my dredge to another state that wants me and to think I started gold prospecting back in 1961 in Ca.

Chuck Anders

[Hawkeye]

Well folks the bill got passed on a 2 to 1 one vote. Two Democrats and one Republican, go figure. No dredging for 5 years now. What the bill does is defund F&G so they can't do the revision on the EIR. Funny that they can do this when F&G was court ordered to do the EIR and that's what the last legislation was suppose to make F&G do. Fish and Game got hammered at the public meetings about the new revised regs so they got their buddies at the capital to go through the back door to get this done. This just goes to prove its not about fish or mercury or any other enviro issue its about getting dredgers out of the rivers. Ten fisherman kill more fish than all the dredgers do.

I've got a very good friend in Oregon who has a good friend who is a Oregon F&G bioligist. He told my buddy that the biggest detriment to the salmon population on the west coast is the sea lion. They have been protected for 40 years and are now over populating the west coast. Combine that with the way the indian tribes are allowed to net the rivers and this chokes up the salmon at the mouths of the rivers where the sea lions just devourer them. There not after the meat of the fish so much but the eggs. Go to the fish ladder there at Roseburg and watch the salmon during the salmon runs. You will see most that come up through the ladder with scars on there bellies where there sea lion have bitten them to get the eggs out. Most of the ones with scares are the males, the sea lions let them go when they don't get any eggs.

Good luck everyone.

Wes

[oneziggycat]

If I had a nickel for every time A dredger from nevada tried running me off a river or for every dredge I've found abandoned on a creek that would solve California's fiscal crisis. I personally am very glad about the moratorium , cheers to a nice quiet summer on the river.

Aaron

[Reno Chris]

If I had a nickel for every time A dredger from nevada tried running me off a river or for every dredge I've found abandoned on a creek that would solve California's fiscal crisis. I personally am very glad about the moratorium , cheers to a nice quiet summer on the river.

Aaron

How rude!

1. If a dredger from Nevada owns the claim, then hey, you cant prospect there.

2. If someone leaves a dredge in the water for an afternoon, its no more abandoned than your car is when you park it along side the road to go hike or prospect.

The people who dredge in CA buy supplies and support all kinds of little tourist towns in the rural parts of the state. If California had 10 jobs for every business its run off or eliminated "unintentionally", there wouldnt be any high unemployment or fiscal crisis.

[Chrisman91]

Let me start by saying that I am not intending to upset or offend anyone with my thoughts and feelings on this issue, so please take the following for what it is; one persons opinion.

Just like everything else, when it comes to politics, we have no say. People like to think we do, and the government wants us to believe that, but we don't. The Bill got passed anyway just like I figured it would. Sad as it is, it is going to come down to a revolt in some way, shape, or form, to get us our rights back. We, the people, have spoken loudly on many concerns where our words have fallen upon "deaf" (def. = blinded by dollar signs) ears.

Proposition 8 here in California is a prime example of just how much our "voices" mean when it comes to politics. A majority of the people in the state voted against same-sex marriage, but because a bunch of folks got their feelings hurt, now it is a matter for the courts to decide??? How can you have faith in your government when they blatantly pull stuff like this? How can they tell me my vote counts, then turn around nullify my vote because it made someone cry??? Sure, some gay rights advocates retort with the argument that it was a really narrow margin. What difference does that make? MAJORITY RULES!! If the Yankees play the Red Sox in the World Series, and the Yankees lose the series 4-3, do we just give them the title anyway because it was "a close margin" and they are upset that they lost?

I love my country, and I love my neighbors near and far, but I despise our government and what it has come to stand for. God Bless America and the American public, but banish the politicians to a eternity in hell...sentence to commence immediately! Okay, that may be a little extreme, but I really hate politicians.

[whylee]

Let me start by saying that I am not intending to upset or offend anyone with my thoughts and feelings on this issue, so please take the following for what it is; one persons opinion.

Just like everything else, when it comes to politics, we have no say. People like to think we do, and the government wants us to believe that, but we don't. The Bill got passed anyway just like I figured it would. Sad as it is, it is going to come down to a revolt in some way, shape, or form, to get us our rights back. We, the people, have spoken loudly on many concerns where our words have fallen upon "deaf" (def. = blinded by dollar signs) ears.

Proposition 8 here in California is a prime example of just how much our "voices" mean when it comes to politics. A majority of the people in the state voted against same-sex marriage, but because a bunch of folks got their feelings hurt, now it is a matter for the courts to decide??? How can you have faith in your government when they blatantly pull stuff like this? How can they tell me my vote counts, then turn around nullify my vote because it made someone cry??? Sure, some gay rights advocates retort with the argument that it was a really narrow margin. What difference does that make? MAJORITY RULES!! If the Yankees play the Red Sox in the World Series, and the Yankees lose the series 4-3, do we just give them the title anyway because it was "a close margin" and they are upset that they lost?

I love my country, and I love my neighbors near and far, but I despise our government and what it has come to stand for. God Bless America and the American public, but banish the politicians to a eternity in hell...sentence to commence immediately! Okay, that may be a little extreme, but I really hate politicians.

I fully agree, we now live in a sad, sad world. Majority does not rule, and for the most part your votes do not count. If they dont like the way the ballot box goes, they just go to court. If the people in this country dont wake up soon and take this country back we will all be at the govts will.