Fish & Game Releases Draft of New Suction Dredge Mining Regulations
Fish & Game Releases Draft of New Suction Dredge Mining Regulations
Reacting to criticism of the existing suction dredge mining regulations — which did little to protect fish populations — California Fish & Game has released its draft regulations for suction dredge mining, and public comments on the revised regulations will be accepted until March 5, 2012.
You can download a draft of the new regulations here.
A few highlights include:
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A county-by-county listing of streams and rivers where suction dredge mining is prohibited or controlled
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A reduction in the number of permits available for issue statewide (1500)
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Establishment of special coldwater refugia areas on the Klamath River
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Revisions to regs designed to eliminate impacts to fish
Currently, suction dredge mining is prohibited by AB120, which established a five-year moratorium while new regulations were developed
Public Comment
This from the Fish & Game website:
The public comment period closes at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, March 5, 2012. All comments must be postmarked or received by DFG on or before that date and time. The revised regulations, all related written comments received by DFG, including the names and addresses of commenters, and DFG’s responses to written comments, will be included in the DFG’s official public record.
Please mail or hand-deliver written comments to DFG at: Suction Dredge Program, Revisions to Proposed Amendments, Department of Fish and Game, Northern Region, 601 Locust Street, Redding, CA 96001.
Written comments may also be submitted to DFG via email at: dfgsuctiondredge@dfg.ca.gov. Please include the following in the subject line for all comments submitted via email: Comments re Revisions to Proposed Amendments.
2 Comments
Did I read correctly that CalTrout “supports” the revised suction dredge regulations issued on 2-17-12? The revised regulations (revised, that is, after a deluge of comments on the previous draft regulations and EIR) do very little to protect fish. The changes are cosmentic only, as are the changes to the draft EIR. I, along with many others, am dismayed by CalTrout’s position, if indeed your statement is actually the organization’s policy. Apparently you have not reviewed the comments that were submitted by other organizations on the 2-17-12 draft (including Foothill Angler Coalition and most of the organizations that had commented on the earlier draft). Please review your statement to see if you really do mean to throw the rest of the fish conservation community that you say you represent under the bus.
Mr. Carnazzo;
The wording on the email wasn’t quite accurate (my fault). CalTrout supports “stricter” regulations. We just posted our comments on DFG’s proposed regulations here.