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by Dan Bacher
March 23, 2009
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) has
joined in a lawsuit by the Karuk Tribe of the Klamath River
and a coalition of environmental and fishing groups against
the California Department of Fish and Game's use of General
Fund money to support suction dredge mining. The suit is
asking for an injunction until California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA) review is completed and other mitigations
take place.
"An injunction halting mining at this time of the year would
be fantastic," said Jerry Neuburger, CSPA webmaster. "Most
trout spawn in the spring. A halt to suction dredge mining
would mean that redds will not be buried with layers of
silt, killing the eggs. The court needs to act and act
NOW!"
CSPA is a longstanding nonprofit organization working for
the conservation of California’s fisheries and their aquatic
habitat.Other organizations filing the second amended
complaint against the DFG include the Center for Biological
Diversity, Friends of the River, Klamath Riverkeeper,
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and
Institute for Fisheries Resources.
"Suction dredge mining has seriously degraded habitat and
fisheries where it is conducted," said Neuburger. "Although
DFG is on record as acknowledging that suction dredge mining
harms fish, it does not have valid regulations controlling
the activity. Despite the lack of necessary regulations, DFG
continues to issue approximately 3,000 permits each year."
The lawsuit takes place as California fisheries are in their
greatest crisis ever. Salmon fishing in ocean waters off
California and Oregon is expected to be closed again this
year, due to the collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon
populations, while coho salmon populations in coastal
streams have reached record lows. Meanwhile, delta smelt,
longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass, threadfin shad and
other California Delta fish have also reached record low
population levels, due to massive increases in water
exports, increasing levels of toxic chemicals in Central
Valley rivers, and invasive species.
A court order in 2006 required the DFG to conduct a CEQA
review of its regulations and to mitigate harms through
formal rulemaking. This process was supposed to have been
completed by June 2008, but the DFG has not yet begun the
CEQA process and claims they lack the money to bring the
program into compliance.
However, over the last two years, the Department has
continued to spend state General Funds to operate the
program, which has already been found to be out of
compliance with the law. "CSPA and the other plaintiffs are
seeking an injunction to prevent DFG from continuing to use
General Funds to operate the suction dredge mining program
until the Court's 2006 order is satisfied, the required
environmental reviews are completed, the harms are mitigated
through a formal rulemaking process and the new regulations
are in place," said Neuburger.
The dredgers pay $150,000 into the Fish and Game
Preservation Fund. "The DFG claims they don’t know exactly
how much is spent administering the dredge program,
including processing and issuing permits and enforcement
activities related to dredging, but we assert that it's much
more than $150,000 which would barely pay salary and
benefits of one staff equivalent," said Craig Tucker,
spokesman for the Karuk Tribe. "We expect a more detailed
accounting to be revealed in the course of the lawsuit."
"The fact that they are not publishing a detailed accounting
of how the program is run suggests to us that they don’t
want anyone to know exactly how much is being spent,"
emphasized Tucker.
Tucker said the real issue is that DFG is failing to comply
with its own regulations. Fish and Game Code 5653 allows the
DFG to grant permits for the use of any vacuum or suction
dredge equipment only if their operation "will not be
deleterious to fish."
The plaintiffs have testimony from DFG biologists as well as
Dr. Peter Moyle, one of the nation's prominent fishery
scientists, stating under oath that dredging is deleterious
to fish.
“Suction dredging represents a chronic unnatural disturbance
of natural habitats that are already likely to be stressed
by other factors and can therefore have a negative impact on
fishes that use the reach being dredged," said Moyle. "All
anadromous fishes in the Klamath basin should be considered
to be in decline and ultimately threatened with extirpation.
Section dredging through a combination of disturbance of
resident fish, alteration of substrates, and indirect
effects on heavy human use of small areas, especially
thermal refugia (side creeks), will further contribute to
the decline of the fishes."
The miners also fail to comply with section 404 of the
federal Clean Water Act that compels them to have a
discharge permit to operate. "There are no suction dredgers
with a 404 permit in CA, since the State Water Resources
Control Board has never established a permit process," added
Tucker.
Miners Attack Traditional Karuk Fishery
Meanwhile, the New 49'ers Prospecting Club and a coalition
of mining and “wise use” groups from northern California,
Oregon and Washington have submitted a petition to the DFG
demanding that they ban the Karuk Tribe from dipnetting
salmon below Ishi Pish Falls on the Klamath River, as they
have done for thousands of years. The petition claims the
tribe is engaged in the “widespread and wanton destruction”
of the coho salmon and other fish in the Klamath River.
“At a time when the federal government is poised to ban
ocean salmon fishing for the second year in a row, it makes
no sense for the State to turn a blind eye to the wholesale
slaughter of salmon by the Tribe,” claimed Mike Higbee of
Grants Pass, Oregon.
However, Leaf Hillman, Vice-chair of the Karuk Tribe, said
these accusations are "ridiculous."
“Our fishery is gear limited," said Hillman. "This means
that because we use traditional dip nets, we can only catch
a very small percentage of fish that are coming up the
falls. This is by design.”
To the tribe, catching the salmon is not just a means of
feeding themselves, but vital to the preservation of their
religion and culture.
“The creator taught us to use dip nets in order to not over
harvest fish,” said Hillman. “We would not have survived
here for thousands of years had we abused this privilege
granted to us by the Creator.”
Hillman explained that although many Tribes in the Pacific
Northwest use gill nets that are strung across the river in
subsistence and commercial fisheries, the Karuk do not.
Karuk fishermen stand on rocks and dip large nets on poles
into the river to catch fish as generations before them have
done.
“Our fishery is non-lethal,” said Hillman. “This allows us
to selectively harvest fish. In other words, we release ESA
listed Coho and smaller chinook back into the river unharmed
and we eat the rest. It also provides opportunities to tag
fish for purposes of conducting scientific studies.”
Hilllman believes that the New 49'ers petition to Fish and
Game “comes in retribution” to the Tribe’s effort to
restrict suction dredge mining in areas that serve as
critical habitat for ESA listed coho salmon, Pacific
lamprey, green sturgeon and other fish listed as ‘species of
special concern’ under the Endangered Species Act.
For more information on the lawsuit and
suction dredge mining, go to
http://www.karuk.us and
http://www.calsport.org.
The Fish and Game Code on Suction Dredge Mining:
Section 5653.9. "Before any person uses any vacuum or
suction dredge equipment in any river, stream, or lake of
this state, that person shall submit an application for a
permit for a vacuum or suction dredge to the department,
specifying the type and size of equipment to be used and
other information as the department may require. (b) Under
the regulations adopted pursuant to Section 5653.9, the
department shall designate waters or areas wherein vacuum or
suction dredges may be used pursuant to a permit, waters or
areas closed to those dredges, the maximum size of those
dredges that may be used, and the time of year when those
dredges may be used. If the department determines, pursuant
to the regulations adopted pursuant to Section 5653.9, that
the operation will not be deleterious to fish, it shall
issue a permit to the applicant. If any person operates any
equipment other than that authorized by the permit or
conducts the operation in any waters or area or at any time
that is not authorized by the permit, or if any person
conducts the operation without securing the permit, that
person is guilty of a misdemeanor."
CSPA Joins Karuk Tribe in Lawsuit Against Suction
Dredge Mining
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