Latest Ca. Dredging Update

[jerhobbs]

PAC members

We heard from many of you, and since some of you shared my communication with other members of the public, we heard from them too.

First let me tell you that we intend to produce a newsletter early next month which will be posted on DFG's web site, emailed to those on our group list and the PAC, and sent by regular mail to a list we have of former permit holders and other interested parties. The newsletter will provide information on status of the process and outline the public review step for the draft regulations and Supplemental EIR, including the choices the public has to communicate their comments and suggestions.

We received many suggestions from you for the public meetings, and it's clear that we cannot construct one meeting format which will satisfy the diverse and contradictory suggestions we received. For example, with respect to receiving verbal input from the public, the recommendations ranged from no opportunity for public comment to unlimited public comment with DFG responding to all questions in the course of the meeting, no matter how long the meeting runs.

We are developing a meeting agenda which includes an opportunity early in the meeting for the public to meet informally with DFG and consultant staff at various stations, similar to what we did at the scoping meetings last year. We will try to answer questions then. DFG will then give a short formal presentation so everyone has the same information about where we are in the process. We will then provide an opportunity for the public to speak at a microphone and we will have a court reporter to record their comments. We will not be responding to questions posed by the public in this portion of the meeting, it is specifically to record their comments for us to consider and address as we work on final regulations. It's likely that we will need to limit each speaker's time to three minutes, but we will make that calculation at each meeting considering the number of speaker cards and time available. We will also be accepting public comment in writing at the meeting and by regular mail, email and fax. I expect these meetings will begin at about 6:00 P.M. and conclude about 10:00. The end time will depend mainly upon the number of speakers and the requirements of the facility where the meeting is held.

We are making good progress on reserving facilities. As I reported previously, there will be five meetings over the last week of January and first week of February, for southern California to Yreka.

Mark Stopher
Environmental Program Manager
California Department of Fish and Game
601 Locust Street
Redding, CA 96001

voice 530.225.2275
fax 530.225.2391
cell 530.945.1344

[russau]

one could only hope that they will see the errors of their ways eventually! it seems the wacoenviromentalists and the Cal. dems are blinded by their actions and are guided by the extreamists to their agenda! maybe ,eventually we will get into a court that sees through all the smoke they present as facts!

[Hoser John]

Didn't know bud was legal in Misery as ya'all tripping. Which by the way is now #1 in something YAAAAAA--oops crime in St.Louis is the worst in the nation --bummer-John

[geno]

I only wish I could be there and express my outrage at the lack of common sense. I don't want to say anything derogatory, but with the way this country is going and the leadership at all levels, it seems as if they don't want to hear or see the facts. For crying out loud, the Spring runoffs do far more "damage" to the rivers than the total disturbance caused by every dredging miner in the state over the last 10 to 20 yrs in total...

[CalGoldDredger]

3 minutes of talk time, as usual, so that would be like 15 minutes if you attend all 5 meetings (had to take my shoes off for that).
15 minutes of your life wasted as I doubt it will change a damn thing.

[jmcallister]

This law is plain DUMB!. It simply the government trying to re-outlaw real wealth from the common American.

[jerhobbs]

High Priority **

Interested Parties

Our schedule for public release of the Draft SEIR and Suction Dredge Regulations has held a target date of the last week of December, 2010, for some time. I regret to inform you that we must defer this until approximately February 1, 2011. Assuming a release on that date I project a date of filing new regulations with the Secretary of State in mid-October 2011.

While we are close to final wording of the draft regulations and the analysis in the Draft SEIR we are not far enough along to conclude our final review, make any necessary edits and produce the document to release the documents in the next few weeks. We had previously projected public meetings for the last week in January and first week of February. These will also need to be rescheduled in late February or early March to allow some time for public review before the meetings.

As to public availability of these documents, we will be printing a very limited number of paper copies. At a production cost of a couple hundred dollars/copy we cannot afford to print a large number. We intend to make copies available at county libraries and some DFG offices for review on-site. The documents will also be available for review and downloading in adobe acrobat format from the DFG website at www.dfg.ca.gov and we will print several hundred compact disks with all of the files on them. We will mail compact disks on request and make copies available at the public meetings.




Mark Stopher
Environmental Program Manager
California Department of Fish and Game
601 Locust Street
Redding, CA 96001

voice 530.225.2275
fax 530.225.2391
cell 530.945.1344

[Hoser John]

[CalGoldDredger]

Never Say DIE!

[El Dorado]

Never knew someone that could expel so much crapola from their anus... Stopher is the champ........ Another season down the crapper