Here is a really good article I will fax to Gov Brown

[Bluebeard]

It is written by Ray Nutting, El Dorado County Supervisor- This guy nailed it! You can find the original letter here: http://www.prpond.com/51/government-tri ... -2011.html

I highlighted and bolded the most salient points.


This is the version I am faxing to Gov Brown:

Government by Trickery Must End
By Ray Nutting,
Supervisor, El Dorado County Board of Supervisors

Recently some environmentalists have tried to stop dredging claiming it does damage to the environment.

A few years ago the State placed a temporary ban on dredging based on environmentalists' claims that dredging was harming the rivers. This was a temporary moratorium while science was preformed to prove, or disprove, the claims. In spite of environmentalists’ best efforts, science was not supporting their claim of damage. Nor was the claim that dredging was spreading mercury substantiated.

Actually, mercury is naturally attracted to the same locations as the gold and as a result of gold mining; it is removed from the riverbeds during the dredging process. Gold mining is the only real way that mercury is effectively removed from the water. Although dredging operations do stir up river bottoms a bit, the runoff from each year’s massive snowpack dislodges and moves around more sand, gravel, and silt than the few thousand miners will ever move.

A 1,500-page, $1.2 million dollar Environmental Impact Report (EIR) conducted on the practice of suction dredge mining, which the Department of Fish & Game has worked on for the last 2 years, conclude that suction dredge gold mining can be resumed in the State safely, and pose "less than significant" impacts. But in a recent budget maneuver, language was inserted into a Trailer Budget Bill which would prohibit the EIR conclusion from ever being published!

Failing to stop dredging by substantiating their claims of damage with science, they have now enlisted legislative friends to stop dredging by trickery. The State government has resorted to dishonest shenanigans and budgetary trickery to take away private property rights and end gold dredging, even on private property!

Even though the claims of damage were wrong, the legislature pulled a fast two-step sideways to stop me, and many others, from insisting that the ban be lifted. According to an editorial in the Sacramento Bee, because of the economic crises that has affected the California budget, there is not enough money to issue the permits necessary for mining! Not only is this unbelievable on its face, but it is tremendous government overreach that ignores the reality of river use, private property rights, and the EIR itself. It is nothing less than a Takings of our rights without grounds. It is environmental extremism gone wild that is stopping good Americans who want to make their living from California's most recognized resource.

By the DFG's own calculations, the industry contributes $23 million annually, and those who benefit are in the lowest income counties in the State. In addition to the retailers of mining equipment throughout the State, at least 14 other sectors of small businesses including grocery, restaurants, lodging, fuel and hardware are awaiting the EIR publication because their businesses depend on the miners getting back to work." Approximately 4,000 miners create the $23 million annual industry in California, and they have been the center of controversy for a handful of environmental groups

This legislative fiat is an attack on the Gold County, rural America, and individual freedoms. It lacks any justification beyond some people's idea of political correctness. It is extremely important for everyone to understand the situation of the political process in Sacramento. The state legislature is not listening to the people, just to a hand full of special interest groups.

The question is not whether we can afford to publish the EIR and get to work, but how on earth we can afford not to put 4,000 people back to work and restart a $23 million industry.

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH THIS DOCUMENT!

Signed, My Name
My Address

[russau]

very good!!!