We have just learned today that a miner, on his mining claim was well, cited kinda……. by a DFG LEO (Dept of Fish and Game, Law Enforcement Officer) for running a small water pump to feed his perfectly legal highbanker. A highbanker is a small box which one shovels dirt into, introduces a little water from the little water pump and washes that material over a small sluice box. His foot valve was confiscated and he was told he committed a felony misdemeanor. Hmmm, we’ve been around the court systems for over 30 years and haven’t heard that one before. He was written a receipt for the foot valve and told because of the remoteness, the LEO might need to call in a helicopter to confiscate the rest of the equipment. Is this how DFG is spending our tax dollars? Flying helicopters in to confiscate equipment without giving a law one is violating? He was not given a citation, but told he could face 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Now, we don’t know about you, but just coming up, interrupting a mining operation and not telling someone what law they have violated, not writing a ticket/citation and then just taking personal property is a little bit……………..outside the scope of our Constitution.
We have the name and number of the LEO and will be having a “chat” in the morning, then escalate this up the ladder to sources we will not name here yet. We have much more information and will give a more detailed update as soon as we are able.
We are aware of the recent activity by the DFG on Bear River and are addressing ALL of this starting tomorrow.
SB637 (the new law passed by Democrats) which requires a permit from the CA Water Board specifically states it applies to suction dredging. CA Water Board is still not issuing permits and after two years, it is a defacto ban on dredging once again.
Ochoa’s case is decided this Wednesday and we will give an update as soon as we know the details.
If a simple water pump is now a dredge, DFG is going to be very, very busy citing all the jet boats in California, all the personal water craft and every flotation device which pumps water.
We are pretty sure we know what is going on here folks, and trust us, we have moved this to the top of our stack of priorities,