Legislation & RegulationFree / Legislation & Regulation Legislative and Regulatory UpdateJanuary 2020 by Scott • PLF files petition with US Supreme Court on behalf of Oregon miners The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality claimed suction gold dredgers are required to obtain a Section 402 EPA permit as a polluter, but the Clean Water Act clearly states there must be the addition of a pollutant to trigger the need for such a permit. In Eastern Oregon Mining Association v. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Oregon Supreme court (in a 6-1 decision) ruled that the mere movement of material already within a navigable waterway was deemed to be an addition. The US Supreme Court petition from PLF seeks to fix this error. It has now been completed and submitted to the US Supreme Court for consideration. A few select quotes from the US Supreme Court petition: ...For today’s suction dredge miners the principal threat comes from heavy-handed government. The arguments are well-written, clear and concise, and backed by significant case precedence. This seems to be the strongest US Supreme Court petition we’ve seen to date to get the clarification necessary and get suction gold dredgers back to work. • Land and Water Conservation Fund abuse by Forest Service The federal Land and Water Conservation fund includes provisions that limit the amount of land the Forest Service can acquire in Western States to “not more than 15 percent” of purchases. However, the GAO report found the Forest Service added 124,000 acres—with 76% of those lands out Though Senator Lisa Murkowski, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called for greater oversight to avoid this problem in the future, she failed to call upon the agency to dispose of lands that were above the legal threshold. • Army asks for REE proposals The stated goal is to reduce the reliance on China for rare earth minerals essential for advanced weapons and technology. The Army announcement asked for proposals for a pilot plant and agreed to cover up to two-thirds of the cost of a new processing facility. © ICMJ's Prospecting and Mining Journal, CMJ Inc. |