If anything is to be done, it will have to be at the Legislature starting in January.  The committee is loaded with the other side, and they get all the time at the meetings, and the miners get shoved off with "we will get to it later if there is time."  Last meeting is on Oct. 9th with results and findings about a month later to Gov. K, who will rubber stamp the whole deal and we will have a 5 year ban, which will turn into something longer.

As soon as SB838 passed and was signed, it was a matter of "a foregone conclusion to a preconceived notion".

 You can sign all the petitions to Gov. K and the dem. controlled legislature you want from out of state, it will fall on deaf ears and blind eyes.  They flat don't care what people from out of state want, he** they don't care what we want.  This all started with the eco-wacs in a hissey from the few CA miners that came up when the an in CA hit.

The only way to change this thing is to overhaul the house and senate and send K packing.

Guys, been there done that and have a drawer full of shirts from the session when SB838 went through and was signed.  You can bet I will remember that Gov. K was against all of us, and that Gov. candidate Richardson was behind us.  My house rep was behind us, but my senator was not, but he is not up again until 2016.

One of the GPAA State Directors has been at every committee meeting since the start of this fiasco.

Is this still an open issue or has the ruling been done?

I was at a meeting last night and got a report from people that were at a hearing on SB 3.  Only one member of the committee was firmly on our side, and by the time the hearing was over, only two committee members were still there.

SB 3 will add all waters that are any kind of tributary to Essential Salmon Habitat (ESH) to the moritorium (ban), even if there is no fish passage.  Ie. a dam with now ladder, the area above that is still open, but will go bye-bye with SB 3.  Effectively ends motorized mining in and near waterways.

It also includes a "memorial" section of the Rogue River to be named for the late Senator Bates, who was the force behind the SB 838 moritorium.  He died while catching the fish he kicked us of the water to supposedly protect......karma happens.

The upshot of this whole thing is that SB 3 WILL pass, as the Dems have the majority in both houses, and Brown WILL sign it.  Will virtually eliminate dredging in the state.  The only hope is to get some amendments added and some language dropped and it is being worked on.

There is a Miners Ralley at the capitol building on March 15th, 2017 from 8-5.   Hopefully the bill hasn't gone through by then. 

It also puts upland mining (anything more than 100 yards from a waterway) under DOGAMI, with really attrocious permit fees, and DOGAMI really doesn't deal with the small scale guys, and doesn't want to.

Oh yeah, also includes up to $10,000 fine for dredging in the newly closed/already closed waters without a permit, which won't be available.

I look for motorized boats to be next as their exhaust is vented into the water.....surprised they haven't worked on that yet.

I recently spoke with claim owners in SW OR.  They have claims above the Applegate Lake / Dam. they are able to dredge using up to 6 inches.  Seems some waters are still dredge-able still?

Is it possible to find a copy of the SB-3 document?

The DEQ 700PM permit (which most of us use) is limited to 4 inch nozzle and 16 hp.  There are other permits and procedures for larger equipment, but permit costs and hoops to jump through get cumbersome.

As to a copy of bills before the legislature you can do it through a search of Oregon Legislative Bills.  Plug that into your search engine and presto....

Well that would just suck, no pun intended ...

When is the vote on this bill due?

Posted By William Adams on 09 Mar 2017 03:59 AM

Well that would just suck, no pun intended ...

 

When is the vote on this bill due?

Here is the page for the Bill and the current status as it moves through it paces ...

http://gov.oregonlive.com/bill/2017/SB3/

 

Still in re-write as far as I know.  Have not dug into it.  Will get an update Sat. night at a club meeting.

There is a miner's ralley scheduled for March 15th at the capital building in Salem from 8-5.  Displays of equipment, demos, speakers - even a couple of state senators from what I hear that support us.

Sorry to say the petition linked above was from ancient history.  (back a couple of years ago) Don't know if it has been updated or not.

As of right now SB 3 doesn't show up.  Looks to be tabled for now so amendments can be made.  Was down sick over last w/e so was unable to get to that meeting I referred to, to get up to date information

Well, just found out the bad news as far as dredging in Oregon.

The 5 year moratorium on ESH (SB838) has now been made permanent by the passage of SB3A in the House on Wed, May 31, 2017.  Guaranteed to be signed by our green Gov.  It still gives us waters not reachable by salmon/steelhead, ie. dam, waterfall with no provision for fish passage. 

I am tring to find out if the proposed fee schedule ($250 application fee and $250/year fee for the DEQ 700PM permit) was passed or altered.  I suspect it remained unchanged.

I just heard back from my state representative......The bill passed as is, so DEQ will be able to charge a $250 application fee (every 5 years as I understand it), and a $250 a year fee for the 700PM dredge (wastewater discharge) permit.  Will be up to them where they set the fee, but I would look for the maximum right now. 

Still have the waters where dredging was legal in 2016/2017.

That means I am out of the dredge business next year.  Not worthwhile to me for that kind of money.  And I just got it together last year.

I know it's probably a bit late, but I just signed it. There is a public hearing at the beginning of next month regarding the new house bill.

Missed the meeting of my Salem club last week........what new bill??? 

Hopefully will be to rein in DEQ, but doubt it.

As of now DEQ is looking at the max fees as listed above......and they only issued 150 odd permits in 2016.....

OK, that's DEQ sorting through SB3. Every 700 PM holder got a certified letter on the hearings. Everyone should submit comments on keeping the fees down, agreed they are outragous as lined out in SB3.

Make no mistake, everyone in every agency in the state wants us out of the water. And even though SB3 set the max at $250 application, and $250 a year for the permit, DEQ is going to use those figures, no matter what.
The very dim light at the end of the nozzle is they might come down somewhat if enough pressure is put on them, but we won't get any help from the legislature, Dems have almost a super majority in both houses, and a governor that is beyond green.

With this, I am now out of the dredging game, just can't justify that kind of money for the return on the time I have available to go mining. 

State Police are going to be the enforcement arm, and from the rumors I hear they aren't interested, they have bigger issues to deal with in the big picture, and most county sheriff's aren't that much interested either.  There will be a huge number of dredges still running, just like the past few years since SB838.  I know there were way more that 150 odd in operation in 2016.