![]() Suction dredge, or placer mining, is a kind of motorized in-stream mineral extraction. Her column runs monthly.The practice has been controversial because of noise and concerns about harm to fish habitat and water quality. ![]() Lorraine Loomis is chairwoman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. To us it is the salmon – not not the few flecks of gold that recreational miners can suck out of our rivers and streams – that is the real treasure. Our tribal cultures depend on salmon and our treaty rights include the right to have salmon protected so that they can be harvested. We’ve been working too hard for too long on salmon recovery to allow suction dredge mining to continue to destroy Washington’s critical salmon habitat. Salmon are declining because their habitat is being lost and damaged faster than it can be restored. This is the kind of common sense and cost-effective regulation that we need. Instead of permits for potentially harmful practices being considered on a case-by-case basis, ESHB 1261 simply prohibits them in salmon streams with critical habitat. The legislation supports court rulings that discharges from suction dredge mining require a permit under the federal Clean Water Act – something Washington has never done. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.ĮSHB 1261 would permit other less-harmful prospecting methods in streams providing critical salmon habitat but would still allow suction dredge mining outside those areas. ![]() Miners in Oregon appealed the state’s moratorium on suction dredge mining all the way to the U.S. California has completely banned suction dredge mining. Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and several other states ban the activity in critical habitat for endangered fish. ![]() As a result, suction dredge mining has increased as miners were blocked from surrounding states. Washington is the only state with endangered salmon and steelhead that still allows recreational suction dredge mining with almost no regulatory oversight. ![]()
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