We have finally recovered after our dredge trip to the 40 Mile River in Alaska at the Gold Fever Prospecting camp near Chicken. We are writing a story which documents our 2 weeks up there and will share it soon.
We are very actively setting up our face to face meetings with CA Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Water Board over the suction dredge permitting proposals for next year and will provide information as soon as we get these meetings.
We are also planning our trip to Idaho to dredge the SF Clearwater. The USFS is still claiming the miners need to obtain a Plan of Operations (PoO) for suction dredging, which is absolutely not required and the EPA is still claiming all miners need an NPDES permit…which is also not required.
We are meeting this head on and have been for nearly 5 years now. Since we know the EPA and the USFS follow us on Facebook, we’d like to remind them that suction dredging does not cause a significant disturbance, we do not recognize that it does based on facts and science and the EPA does not have authority over this non-navigable waterway, nor does suction dredging create any pollution as the NPDES permit describes. It is incidental fallback, and again, the permit is not necessary, legal, nor required on any waterways where the EPA has no authority.
We are in the process of obtaining our Idaho dredge permit from the State and will be dredging starting on July 15th on our real property mining claims along with dozens of other miners.
We have proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Nez Perce NF has used fraudulent methods to state that dredging is a significant disturbance and yet Ms. Cheryl Probert (Supervisor NPNF) still claims she can require the PoO or take legal action against the miners who do not.
Ms. Probert, I will be near mile marker 35 with the blue dredge, very near an American Flag wrapped truck that says “AMRA” on the side. If you feel you have this authority, perhaps this will make it easier for you to find us.
When I flew to Idaho last year for our meeting together, along with many of your staff, you promised to work with the miners to get to the bottom of the fraudulent letter you produced from your District Ranger which you claimed requires a PoO. If you recall, we had District Ranger Nevius on the call and he stated, on the record he never wrote the letter, signed the letter nor has he ever stated suction dredging causes a significant disturbance. We have a term for that in law enforcement, I’m sure your legal department can share what that term is. You have not one time reached out to us since then per your promise to do so. It baffles us and the public how you feel you do not work for the public managing their forest, nor do you feel obligated to follow the laws and regulations governing your role in managing our lands.
As we sit here writing this post, it is sincerely baffling how our government agencies completely ignore the laws, grants and their own regulatory instruments. Someone has to stand up to this and challenge these illegal acts by them. That is precisely what we intend to do….again.