Dredging open in Calif again

[El Dorado 964]

Unless I am reading this wrong,they are going to start issuing dredge permits once again, but only 1500 of them per year. A quick read and I did not see a fee, but will re-read it again......

http://icmj.com/userfiles/files/Plain%20Text%20Regulations%2002172012.pdf

[Au Seeker 3,153]

I'm about 1/4 of the way through reading the new documents.

I think there's a comment period to go through as well before these regulations are set in stone.

Skip

[rockhunter1620 62]

Yep, they'll issue 1500 permits, first come first serve for a "fee", couldn't find the fee amount after one readin.

[Dakota Slim 1,066]

I'd be standing in line when they open the doors if I was a dredger. The greenies may try to buy up all the licenses.

[El Dorado 964]

I'll be willing to bet that the "fee" will be prohibitive. I think there may be a comment period, but previous comments have done little to deter them from doing as they wish. If they actually use these regs and do not have to inspect each and every operation, I think it may be OK for the lucky 1500.......I really though they were going to totally limit hose size to 4" but that is not the case.

[Jerico 5]

^{Dredges have to be 500 feet apart from each other? Wow thats a long ways.}

^{Maybe they will let the guys who bought dredge permits a few years ago have a frist dibs type thing seing how they didn`t get to hardly dredge at all and didn`t receive any form of refund such as myself,}

[jerhobbs 0]

Notice from the DFG Notice of availability and opportunity to comment, 2 pages

And I quote from last 3 lines in the second paragraph

"CDFG is currently prohibited from issuing suction dredge permits under the Fish and Game Code, and suction dredging is currrently prohibited until June 30, 2016."

[matt 188]

Notice from the DFG Notice of availability and opportunity to comment, 2 pages

And I quote from last 3 lines in the second paragraph

"CDFG is currently prohibited from issuing suction dredge permits under the Fish and Game Code, and suction dredging is currrently prohibited until June 30, 2016."

darn! I got all excited over nothing.

[Dakota Slim 1,066]

Hmmm. A lot can happen in 4 years and 4 months. Gold could be at 10K an ounce.

[wminerick 0]

Dredging has NOT been resumed. Someone read it wrong. First the DFG has to fully 100% mitigate the issues (impossible) and has to raise dredge permit rates to cover added expenses and that needs to be (only) accomplished by a legislative bill (which at this time there is no one presenting such a bill). Rumor has it that DFG wants to to hire 2 more game wardens and a couple of biologists to monitor the dredgers, so by salaries alone, we are looking at about $450 a permit. and if you then add that they want to lessen the quantity of permits (yet still cannot afford to "work in the black" you could see another the permit fee raise another $100 to cover the lower number of dredgers to monitor. So that adds up to $625/year. Do you want to be at the end of THAT ugly stick if your organization proposed such a fee?

We are out of the water for a Looooooooooooooooooooong time, unless Jerry can pull a rabbit out of the hat and other factors come into play.

Nothing, you ain't seen the half of it. The "elephant in the room" is the fact that it says nothing about mercury in that report. Do you know what that means? That means they have passed the mercury part over to State Water Resources Control Board. Anybody want to place bets on how outrageous the fees are going to be for "only recovering 98% of the mercury you encounter (whether or not you actually EVER see mercury on your claim?)? If you like the $1200 highbanking permit, I GUARANTEE you will like the new permit for dredging in a mercury laden waterway (whether or not there actually is ANY mercury in it). THAT will be quite the sucker punch, eh?

My guess is the combined cost of the two permits could be at least $2000 a year. This is just a guess and I have NOTHING to base it on, other than seeing the writing on the wall. They want to REALLY make you work for your gold, you will be "into it" for $2000 plus equipment costs and claim fees, before you can even think about earning it back from whatever you find..... oh, and maybe the "nice government men" will stop by to watch what you do along the way (and cite you for infractions)? Won't that be special? . Anybody want to make a wager as to where the total price of both permits will land? If you use my arbitrary $625 for the "new (and improved) suction dredge permit, so adding another $1550 for the SWRCB dredging permit isn't out of the question. They aren't going to outlaw dredging, they will just make it so expensive to consider it that you will have to be a millionaire to put together any kind of operation and pay for the permits. Gee, doesn't that sound familiar- squeeze out the little guy so only the large well funded interests can afford to do it. Where have I seen this before?

Talk to the guy at the Big Cut mine in Placerville about that one as I think he has wandered down this road already and may have experienced a bit of frustration working with the nice government men who wanted to "help".

And the believe it or not, the proposed new regs are probably the good news. It appears that the enviros are gearing up to sue that the regs are not stringent enough. Yeah, that's it, let's make the dredgers REALLY SQUIRM.

We are going to need everyone's help on defeating this. As they say "as goes California, so goes the rest of the nation". If you want to help, go to the Western Mining Alliance website and tell us what you want to do to help. We only have 15 days to respond to these new regs.

[Dakota Slim 1,066]

Under the Constitution, the U.S. government was restricted from infringing on citizen rights. When did mining for gold and having free and unrestricted access to public land become illegal?

I suspect that whatever laws ban this kind of activity are unconstitutional.

[El Dorado 964]

Slim, ultimately you are 100% correct. The California Dept of Fish and Game has no real constitutional authority to regulate federally established law. The can regulate hunting and fishing as a State's Right, but not mining. I think that is why the few that have continued to dredge with no permit have not been cited. Since they did not have a permit, they did not agree to the law. A permit is an acknowledgement of compliance to the law...