Karuk members sue Fish and Game over mining program

The issue, involving suction dredge mining in California, was recently brought to light when a petition, filed by various groups including the Karuk Tribe, was submitted to the DFG to urge the halting of dredge mining before a court–ordered environmental review is completed. The petition was denied by DFG Director Don Koch, who said that the petition did not contain enough evidence that an emergency existed to call for a limiting of dredging.
Fish and Game officials have stated that the environmental review will be completed by November of next year and will determine the regulatory practices regarding suction dredging in California.

Various groups maintain that an emergency persists, and therefore have filed the suit under California Code of Civil Procedure §526a, which allows tax-paying citizens to file suit against government agencies they accuse of “any illegal expenditure of, waste of, or injury to the estate, funds, or other property of a county, town, city or city and county of the state.”

The suit states that the DFG can only issue permits for suction dredge mining if the department has valid regulations in place, and can affirmatively find that the mining will not harm any fish. The plaintiffs claim that the DFG does not have valid regulations in place because the court–ordered Environmental Impact Report has not been completed and they also cite court documents in which DFG experts are quoted as saying that suction dredging is deleterious to fish.

The suit then claims that the DFG is violating a court order by issuing permits without conducting the CEQA reviews and is thus using taxpayer money to fund illegal activity.

The suit ends with a “Prayer for relief” asking for “A temporary restraining order, preliminary and permanent injunction enjoining Defendants, their agents, employees, assigns, and all persons acting in concert or participating with them from expending any general fund money to issue permits or operate the suction dredge program in such a manner that allows suction dredge mining to occur under the Department’s current regulations” effective until the DFG conducts an environmental review of its suction dredge mining regulations pursuant to CEQA, negative environmental impacts are mitigated through formal rulemaking and any challenges are resolved and any new regulations are adopted through the rulemaking.

In the press release detailing the lawsuit, Dave Bitts, a commercial salmon fisherman from Humboldt Bay, said, “It’s morally reprehensible and illegal for California Fish and Game to use tax dollars to subsidize the destruction of our fisheries in the midst of a budget crisis.”
James Foley, the suction dredge mining representative for the New 49ers group of Siskiyou County, said that the battle over suction dredging has been going strong since 1994.

Asked about the initial reaction to the suit being filed, Foley said, “Basically our first reaction is dismay. Dismay that they are filing yet another lawsuit.”

The second reaction, Foley said, is optimism, because he feels that case does not appear to be strong.

In order to counter the suit, mining groups will more than likely have to intervene in order to have their side heard, which Foley said is going to be the likely course of action.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material  herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed  a  prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and  educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml