Status of Suction Dredge Regulation and Environmental review Process

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Mark Stopher

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Jun 7, 2010, 1:23:37 PM6/7/10

to Marc Springer, Alison Harvey, Jeff Shellito, John Buckley, Walt Wegner, Ray Nutting, Chip Hess, Steve Evans, Christine Nota, Petey Brucker, ca-suction...@googlegroups.com, Walt Duffy, Craig Tucker, Pat Keene, George Wheeldon, Carrie Monohan, Elizabeth Martin, Jim Foley, Ken Oliver, R. Costales, Gerald Hobbs, Joseph Greene, Claudia Wise, Rachel Dunn, Bernard Aguilar, Craig Wilson, Dwayne Maxwell, John Hanson, John Mattox, Julie Means, Julie Oltmann, Jordan Traverso, Kevin Hunting, Kevin Shaffer, Mike Carion, Randy Kelly, Susan LaGrande, Stafford Lehr, Tim Hovey, Michael Stevenson, Rick Humphreys

Interested Parties

I regret having to advise you that our completion date for completing this project will be delayed.

Last fall during the public scoping period we held meetings in Fresno, Sacramento and Redding which were very well attended. We also received numerous letters, email messages and telephone calls. A central theme to that feedback was a need for more outreach to the public, including suction dredge miners, scientists and non-governmental organizations. In response, the Department of Fish and Game prepared a contract amendment with Horizon Water and Environment, our principal consultant, to expand our socioeconomic analysis, including a survey of suction dredge miners, convene a Public Advisory Committee, expand our detailed review of the legislative history, prepare newsletters for the public, revise the contract consistent with the SB 670 moratorium which was enacted after the original contract was approved and make minor adjustments for more coordination during preparation of the EIR.

The State contract approval process is a lengthy process requiring review and approval by the Department of Fish and Game, California Natural Resources Agency and Department of General Services. The proposed Amendment was submitted for review in mid-January and is not yet approved. At this point our estimated date for publishing the Final Environmental Impact report and submitting the Final Regulations to the Office of Administrative Law is mid-July 2011. That completion date was projected based upon an Amendment approval date of June 4, 2010. The Amendment, however, has not been approved, it could come any day, or it could take several more weeks. However, further work on this project, pending approval, will be greatly reduced. We cannot incur financial obligations (i.e. contractor expenses) without an approved Amendment.

Essentially, going forward. each additional day awaiting approval pushes back our end date a commensurate amount of time. I will provide a further update in two weeks, or when the Amendment is approved, whichever come first.

Mark Stopher
Acting Regional 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

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