Dredging is NOT the same as Hydraulicing!
Posted on 04/14/2013 7:53:19 PM PDT by Ron C.
A legal battle is brewing over whether California gold miners should be allowed to vacuum up the bottoms of rivers.
The controversy is about a process called suction dredge mining, a practice popularized on the Discovery Channel show "Bering Sea Gold" but banned for the last four years in California, as state courts continue to weigh new environmental regulations.
"Suction dredging is the best way to extract gold from the environment," said Craig Lindsay, a former dredger and president of the Western Mining Alliance, an advocacy group working to protect mining rights in Western States.
Suction dredge mining is a process in which prospectors look for gold by diving underwater using a 4-inch wide hose to vacuum dirt and gravel to find gold.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Flooding does...
Not hardly at all. Yes some clouding does occur, but in the overall that clouding is extremely miniscule compared to the whole river.
I fished, quite successfully immediately below (80-90 feet) from where they were working at the base of large rocks in the midst of the river. No visible amount of 'clouding' of the river even rose to the surface.
You have to remember - the amount of water coming down the river is probably something like many hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of water - extremely greater than the amount of matter and water that is proceeding up through the dredging operation.
Dredging is NOT the same as Hydraulicing!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.