Eugene weekly., July 23, 2009, Page 9, Image 9

recreational suction dredging has been allowed to continue. Miners argue that they are actually
removing mercury from the rivers, making them cleaner, and creating, not destroying, salmon
habitat.
“Panning is friendly mining, as far as it goes,” says George Sexton of Klamath-
The 1872 mining law, called the General Mining Act, that allows environmentally-unsound
Siskiyou Wildlands Center (KS Wild), “but it’s not the most common form of mining.” In southern
mining practices to continue on public lands “was written in a different era,” Sexton says.
Oregon, where KS Wild monitors environmental issues on public lands, Sexton says, “You’ll see
“Exploration and exploitation were placed over all other values,” he says, including watershed
more bear than you’ll see miners panning for gold.”
protection and recreation. “It’s like having an 1872 law that governs the Internet,” he says.
The more problematic mining that Sexton deals with is a
The law allows all U.S. citizens 18 years or older to locate a
practice called “suction dredging,” which he says is causing harm
hard rock “lode” or gravel “placer” mining claim on federal lands
to fi sh populations in the rivers of southern Oregon and northern
open to mineral entry. Sexton says that unlike other industries on
California where gold is found.
public lands — like oil extraction, which is leased, or logging —
In suction dredging, a diver in a wetsuit swims along the
hard rock mining, including gold mining, does not pay a share of
riverbed with a large suction hose powered by a gasoline engine
profi ts (a royalty) to U.S. taxpayers. However, he says, taxpayers
that fl oats on a raft or pontoon. The hose sucks up the sediment
“are hit with the cost of the cleanup.” This year’s stimulus bill
from the riverbed and the miners then separate the gold from the
gave $1.5 billion for construction and maintenance on public
other sediments using a sluice box. Larger gold nuggets settle
lands, and some of that money will go to cleaning up mines.
out, but smaller bits of gold must be extracted through other
Last fi scal year the Bureau of Land Management, the National
means.
Park Service and the Forest Service spent about $25 million on
According to the Sierra Fund’s document “Mining’s Toxic
cleaning up old mines.
A suction dredge
Legacy,” suction dredgers often encounter a gold-mercury
Though miners are required to clean up their mines and
amalgam in their mining. The suction dredging process not only
replace disturbed gravel, “As far as I know there is no compliance monitoring at all,” Sexton
re-suspends the mercury in the water, some of which was left there as a result of older mining
says. On his hikes in southern Oregon, he says, “I routinely see suction dredgers violating the
operations, but some miners, after treating the mercury to release the gold, pour the toxin back
conditions of their permits.” However, Sexton adds that environmentalists do see a light at the
into the river, onto the ground or into sewage systems. Sexton says other toxic results of mining
end of the mining tunnel, and though he calls current mining practices “a free for all,” he says he
include arsenic and cyanide.
thinks the General Mining Act will be updated soon.
Suction dredging is practiced in Oregon and California’s Wild and Scenic Rivers and in
Ken Salazar announced on July 14 that the Obama administration is committed to rewriting
Wilderness Areas, Sexton says. It damages water quality as well as critical habitat for threatened
the act. Mining reform legislation has been introduced in both the House and the Senate. Both
coho salmon, he says. Opponents to suction dredging point out that low salmon numbers have
versions would set up some sort of royalty structure for hard rock mining on federal lands, and a
caused commercial salmon fi shing to be stopped on Oregon and California’s coasts, but that
fund would be set up to pay for cleanup. — Camilla Mortensen
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EUGENE WEEKLY JULY 23, 2009 9