CSPA Joins Karuk Tribe in Lawsuit Against Suction Dredge Mining

CSPA Joins Karuk Tribe in Lawsuit Against Suction Dredge Mining

by Dan Bacher

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."