Karuk Strike Back

Specifically, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Protection Information Center, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations last week announced that they filed suit against the State Water Resources Control Board and the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, claiming both have violated state law by allowing delays in enforcing water quality standards.

Ultimately, the groups hope that suing over water quality issues will force the state to limit suction gold dredging - a technique they claim fouls rivers and streams. They also claim that the state supports miners over fishermen - a claim suction miners deny. Instead they argue that it's really a matter of property and mining rights. Also, they argue fish benefit from suction mining because the technique cleans water and doesn't foul it.

But Karuk Tribe spokesperson Craig Tucker sees it differently.

"Fish and Game is quick to kick California's 2.4 million fishermen off the river, but they continually go to bat for 3,000 hobby miners," Tucker said. "As a taxpayer I am sick and tired of government handouts to hobby miners that are destroying California's rivers."
The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, claims that the agencies have abused their discretion by not finishing the water quality plans.

But water board executive officer Catherine Kuhlman said board staff simply don't have the manpower to finish the work. However, because of recent talks regarding the removal of dams on the Klamath, the Klamath River has now taken priority, she said. That means the Karuk and others could likely soon get their way when it comes to limiting suction dredging.
The North Coast board has finished plans for the Garcia, Scott, Shasta and Salmon rivers. Those action plans are part of the Clean Water Act's Total Maximum Daily Load, TMDL, program. A TMDL is the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive in 24 hours and still meet water quality standards. The program first requires the agencies to identify and maintain a list of impaired rivers and streams and submit that list to the U.S. EPA for approval. The agencies must then assess the sources of pollution causing the violations, set TMDL limits for these sources, and develop action plans to achieve the standards.