AB120 California Budget Bill - MERGED THREADS

[editor]

(12)Existing law designates the issuance by the Department of Fish and Game of permits to operate vacuum or suction dredge equipment to be a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and suspends the issuance of permits, and mining pursuant to a permit, until the department has completed an environmental impact report for the project as ordered by the court in a specified court action. Existing law prohibits the use of any vacuum or suction dredge equipment in any river, stream, or lake, for instream mining purposes, until the Director of Fish and Game certifies to the Secretary of State that (a) the department has completed the environmental review of its existing vacuum or suction dredge equipment regulations as ordered by the court, (b) the department has transmitted for filing with the Secretary of State a certified copy of new regulations, as necessary, and (c) the new regulations are operative.
This bill would modify that moratorium to prohibit the use of vacuum or suction dredge equipment until June 30, 2016, or until the director’s certification to the secretary as described above, whichever is earlier. The bill would additionally require the director to certify that the new regulations fully mitigate all identified significant environmental impacts and that a fee structure is in place that will fully cover all costs to the department related to the administration of the program.

[i.belyea]

Doesn"t anyone wonder if the price of gold has anything to do with this?I thought this "study" was on the enviromental impact of dredging. On my claim on the Mid Yuba I have NEVER seen or encountered any forest service or blm officials in over 8 years,but now my season is being changed from july-september to september-january.what do they base this decision on?
,

[jerhobbs]

AB120 is on Gov's Desk! See Below:

CURRENT BILL STATUS


MEASURE : A.B. No. 120
AUTHOR(S) : Committee on Budget (Assembly Members Blumenfield
(Chair), Alejo, Allen, Brownley, Buchanan, Butler,
Cedillo, Chesbro, Dickinson, Feuer, Gordon, Huffman,
Mitchell, Monning, and Swanson).
TOPIC : Public Resources.
+LAST AMENDED DATE : 06/08/2011


TYPE OF BILL :
Active
Non-Urgency
Appropriations
Majority Vote Required
State-Mandated Local Program
Fiscal
Non-Tax Levy

LAST HIST. ACT. DATE: 07/14/2011
LAST HIST. ACTION : Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:15 p.m.

[dredgeguy]

AB 120 signed by Kalif Gov on Tue 7-26-11

[Uncle Sam]

GREAT. He caved. We knew it would happen.

At least he didn't do it on a Thursday before a furlough Friday at NIGHT! (like Arnie)

What a jerk.

Course of action - this changes nothing. We dredge anyway.

[jerhobbs]

Interested Parties

Today, July 26, 2011, Assembly Bill 120 was approved by Governor Brown.
This legislation amends seven different codes within California State
law including the Fish and Game Code. Two paragraphs in this bill refer
to suction dredge mining and have substantial impacts on the process to
conduct environmental review and adopt amended regulations guiding
suction dredge mining in California.

The Department of Fish and Game released draft regulations and a
related Draft Subsequent Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) for public
review on February 28, 2011. We held six public meetings and accepted
public comments through May 10, 2011. At that time we projected that we
would be adopting new regulations and certifying the Final SEIR by the
end of 2011. This would then have permitted the sale of suction dredge
permits under newly adopted regulations.

Assembly Bill 120 affects this effort in four important ways.

First, it establishes an end date for the current moratorium of June
30, 2016. The current moratorium was established by SB 670, and took
effect on August 9, 2009, without any specific end date. The new law
specifies that the moratorium will end on June 30, 2016, regardless of
whether DFG completes court-ordered environmental review of its existing
permitting program or adopts new regulations. Of course, further
legislation or action by the courts could modify that circumstance.

Second, AB 120 requires that any “new regulations fully mitigate all
identified significant environmental impacts.” As directed by the
Alameda County Superior Court and SB 670, DFG prepared the Draft SEIR to
meet requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). In
addition to CEQA, AB 120 now requires DFG to meet a “fully mitigate”
standard for any adopted suction dredge mining regulations in order for
the new moratorium to end any earlier than June 30, 2016. “Fully
mitigate” is not defined in statute or regulation, however, and
previously the term has only been used in the Fish and Game Code in
section 2081, subdivision (b), of the California Endangered Species Act.


Third, a new condition, required by AB 120 is “a fee structure is in
place that will fully recover all costs to the department related to the
administration of the program.” DFG takes the view that the current
fee structure is not sufficient to support the level of effort which
should be devoted to implementing our authority to regulate suction
dredge gold mining. In addition to the administrative costs of selling
permits, DFG believes we should have environmental scientists funded
through suction dredge permit fees to conduct on-site inspections as
needed prior to issuing permits and also to monitor suction dredge
mining to collect data on effects on aquatic and terrestrial organisms
and habitat. Further, suction dredge permit fees should provide funding
for game wardens to inspect, monitor and enforce compliance with any new
regulations. Under current law, however, the fee structure for DFG’s
permitting program is prescribed by statute. Any change to that
structure is beyond the authority of DFG and any such change will
require action by the California Legislature and related approval by the
Governor. Because of the legislative calendar for submittal of new
legislation and the legislative process itself, it is very unlikely that
any change to the existing fee structure will occur within the 2011
calendar year.

Finally, the previous moratorium established by SB 670 was clear that
DFG needed to take several actions (i.e. comply with CEQA and adopt
amended regulations) which would then allow suction dredge mining to
resume, under the new regulations. Said another way, DFG had the final
State approval to complete the process, subject only to the Alameda
County Superior Court’s concurrence. AB 120 adds a legislative step,
described in the previous paragraph. Simply put, the legislature will
need to affirmatively approve a new fee structure, before suction dredge
mining can resume under new regulations. The perspectives of legislators
about sufficiency of a fee structure and suction dredge mining generally
will affect the probability of such legislation being approved.

With this set of new facts in front of DFG, we are evaluating the
extent to which the work we have already done can be used under the
requirements of AB 120, and how we might proceed. We do not yet have a
revised workplan or schedule. However, our previous projection that this
process would be complete by the end of 2011 is no longer viable. It
will likely be several weeks from now before we have determined what we
will need to proceed and how we can do so. I will provide additional
information to the recipients of this message when there is something
new to report.


Mark Stopher
Environmental Program Manager
California Department of Fish and Game
601 Locust Street
Redding, CA 96001

voice 530.225.2275
fax 530.225.2391
cell 530.945.1344
mstopher@dfg.ca.gov

[Charlie]

i am so mad i could bite nails in half - why do the people in kalifornia continue to vote in communists and then allow them to take away our freedoms? how is it that we can lose our freedoms and not have any legal recourse or representatives to protect us from this tyranny?

[Uncle Sam]

i am so mad i could bite nails in half - why do the people in kalifornia continue to vote in communists and then allow them to take away our freedoms? how is it that we can lose our freedoms and not have any legal recourse or representatives to protect us from this tyranny?

--Because the overwhelming majority of people in Cali are city folk who are not aware of our freedoms. I just got back from LA today, and yes, the surf was killer at Venice, but try explaining the mining situation to the millions sitting in traffic on the 101 at the 5/10/60 interchange in downtown Los Angeles! They are not even aware of the vast open lands of Northern California where I live and mine.

[chet]

You guys just dont get it!!!

Who votes for these people?? The "too lazy to work", the "I want mine" handouts, the tree huggers, the control freaks.

Why??? because these idiots in office will give them what they want just to get a vote and take money out of your pockets.

They don't care about dredging, the future, debt or anything else it's the

I GOT MINE mentality

[Charlie]

you know Chet i know that you are spot on with what you are saying and as long as the trained monkeys can press the gov't red button and a food pellet comes out they will follow the program of their masters.

[Uncle Sam]

You guys just dont get it!!!

Who votes for these people?? The "too lazy to work", the "I want mine" handouts, the tree huggers, the control freaks.

Why??? because these idiots in office will give them what they want just to get a vote and take money out of your pockets.

They don't care about dredging, the future, debt or anything else it's the

I GOT MINE mentality

--You got it, brother.

How quickly they forget that this state was founded on GOLD. It is what settled the West (yeah, we screwed a lot of people in the "settling.") but there it is.

In our current economic state, with globalism denying Congress its ability to devalue PM's, Gold is the only real currency. The US NEEDS gold, it is the principle upon which nations have stood firm since the dawn of time and we miners are the PRODUCERS OF THAT PRINCIPLE. We are the ONLY net creditors to this world. WE create the medium of exchange which is the only true measure of a man's labor. They better start showing us some respect for the foundation we lay is the ONLY thing they can stand upon now. -$1675/oz Au.-

Most importantly, we need to quit asking for our rights. You don't ASK for rights, you take command of them and exercise them. We take what is ours.

Like I said earlier. WE DREDGE ANYWAY! WE MINE ANYWAY!

There is no human being alive on this planet that has more of a right to that land and its contents than ME. The rocks, the minerals, the very dirt itself belongs to me and me alone. I am the only one who can sever it from the land and none other. The land PHYSICALLY BELONGS TO ME.

I got a fight going on right now with USFS and Cal. DFG about water usage - ok, the water is not mine, but the land IS.

IF YOU DON'T WANT ME USING YOUR WATER, THEN GET YOUR WATER OFF OF MY LAND - OR I AM GOING TO START BILLING YOU FOR RIGHTS TO MY GROUND!!

"Hey, Luke, what is Boss John's dirt doing in my hole??"

[BB46]

I don't believe government believes in private property rights. It kinda seems you pay a huge amount that allows you to pay smaller amounts yearly to do what government says you have to (and mostly what you CAN'T do) on said land. Your right to "Persue happiness" has been changed to right to do as you are told. $$$ talks and the working class can't afford a voice. Welcome to America.

BB46

[aweath1073@aol.com]

I lived in Idaho and dredged in the rivers- Clearwater river- snake river- salmon river for 30 year and now I live WA state. Idaho when I was a kid dredging their was about 5000/ 10000 Salmon and Steelhead in the river every year and a lot gold dredger,now their is around 400 000 fish every year.When you dredge you make fish spawning bed and next year the fish use it to spawn, My wife and I have 8 claim in upper Applegate river in norther California above Applegate dam,and I have never seen a fish that hi up yet we can not dredge on are claims .It not about fish,gold dredging help fish habitat We are over fishing / gill netting in the mane rivers in California.I have watch tribal member cut open salmon rip out the eggs and throw the fresh fish back in the river and sell the eggs to the japan market for $80 lb that what goes on in California/ Oregon/ Washington state. Every state has no money for school and teachers funds and yet the US forest service don,t sale timber any more but they all ways have new cars and trucks to drive every year, yet timber sales to pay for your kids schooling/ bus and new schools.That what has to stop

[perry]

anyone privy to the court case in san berdo that might turn the dredging law around? The only info I could find was a date of 9/14/2011 that it was to be introduced. thanks perry (I'm ready to go dredging again)

[editor]

Currently PLP has requested from the court of appeals what the staus is for the Hillman vs DFG vs PLP case

[jeannie]

So what now? Does anyone have a clue as to what can be done for CA miners at this point? If I were to write a letter, who would I address it to? It seems as if this has gone past Jerry Brown and is wallowing in the court system. Who are the decision makers?

[2cmorau]

I think we should all get together on January 24 (its an idea that waas brought up by another ) walk the steps of the Capital.
I think were past the civil manner of writing letters its time to tell them with action, writing hand writen leters are best but what good does it do if they don't get the letter becuz some bozo reads it before it gets to the rep
or we can all agree to write one rep a month, make a list of reps and everybody ( miners) writes a letter to just one guy/gal to get there attention and then go down the list so that there bombbarded
just an idea
as far as i am concern, this sb670 and ab120 is prejudice and discriminating

[aweath1073@aol.com]

yes let make it a big one,we need lots dredgers and keep it peacefull . even if we have to march on the free ways