Back in 2014 we were contacted by several suction dredge miners in Idaho who told us they were being harassed by the EPA and were told they needed an EPA/NPDES permit to dredge their claims which they had dredged for over 50 years or face $37,000 per day fines without the EPA permit. The EPA claimed they had authority over what was essentially every lake, river and mud puddle in America and could force anyone to obtain permission (permits) from them for state authorized mining activities. If you're from CA, OR or WA, you understand this first hand.
We extensively consulted with attorneys, mining organizations and legal minds over the legality of the EPA requiring these permits to dredge their real property mining claims and the unanimous decision was an EPA permit was not needed, just the state permit which follows essentially the same guidelines as the NPDES permit.
We picked up a claim, obtained our state permits and dredged in 2015 on the SF Clearwater to challenge the EPA on this permitting scheme under the Clean Water Act (CWA). That year, 2015 we were the only people dredging on the river, but had hundreds on the bank during the season cheering us on including an Idaho State Senator, House Representatives, County Supervisors and many more. The EPA did not cite us.
The EPA continued to send letters to the miners each year threatening the fines and we again dredged with a state permit, along with several more miners.
In 2018, Idaho Conservation League (ICL), a very far left environmental group filed suit against AMRA President Poe for allegations of violations in the CWA. They claimed damages for destruction of fish habitat. The season for dredging this river is one month and the miners were required to perform reclamation of any dredged areas. Sadly, as we were dredging, there were no fish when we started, but as the hole was enlarged many fish started appearing each day in the cool, deeper and safe water. After a week, there were literally hundreds of fish in our dredge hole. USFS fisheries biologist stated to us “I wish you could dredge bank to bank as it creates perfect fish habitat”. When we reclamated the dredge hole at the end of the 2018 season, the fisheries biologist was disappointed we had to fill in the perfect fish habitat. The reclamation we performed returned the river to the state it was in just a month prior and was performed so perfectly, Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR) who issues the dredge permits could not tell where we dredged and we had to point out where our operation was so they could sign off on the end of season inspection (pictured below). Obviously they were impressed with the reclamation. The downside was, all of the fish were forced into other areas instead of our deep pools they loved.
ICL, filed suit based on a provision in the CWA that if the EPA does not enforce their policy, a civil suit can be brought forth. It was and it has now been two years since that case was filed and well over a hundred thousand in legal fees to fight it.
Two days ago, an Obama appointed federal judge in Idaho ruled in favor of ICL on summary judgement and against Poe.
We sincerely believe there are many things the judge was wrong on in his ruling and are exploring options on where to go from here.
We formed AMRA to fight for the little guy and sometimes this puts us in the spotlight, in the line of fire and a target by the far left radical groups. AMRA has been vocal against over-regulation since our founding and have relied on support from others (members or donations) to continue to fight for the little guy.
We either fight, or roll over and accept the destruction of our liberties.
We will be writing more about this as time goes on. ... See more
