DeFazio, Wyden, Merkley request Southern Oregon mining withdrawal
From our weekly issue dated November 25, 2009
All of the elected officials representing the Illinois Valley at the federal level are calling for an immediate mining withdrawal for the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area.
In a Thursday, Nov. 12 letter, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Springfield) joined Gov. Kulongoski in requesting the withdrawal from U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Those agencies oversee the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, which control much of the federal lands in Josephine County.
Kulongoski announced his support for the mining withdrawal in a Thursday, Oct. 15 press release, and also sent letters to Vilsack and Salazar making that request.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently banned the use of suction dredging in that state, which has caused concerns to environmentalists and officials that miners may enter Oregon to engage in that activity.
The calls for withdrawal come after a pair of high-profile incidents near mining claims in the past several months.
On April 5, Ronald Eugene Spears, 61, was arrested after allegedly shooting a man during a confrontation near his mining claim in the Tennessee Mountain area west of Kerby. Gold Hill resident Clifford Tracy, 37, was arrested Sept. 9 by USFS officials during a traffic stop shortly after leaving his mining claim on Sucker Creek. Tracy was subsequently convicted of mining without a permit.
President Clinton originally proposed the withdrawal in January 2001, shortly before the end of his second term. However, President Bush didn’t follow up on the proposal during his eight years in office.
In the Nov. 12 letter, Wyden, Merkley and DeFazio wrote that “there are areas in this important region that are in immediate need of withdrawal from the Mining Law of 1872.”
“We believe that the mineral withdrawal as proposed by the Clinton administration deserves your reconsideration, and we are most critically concerned about the immediate mining threats to Rough and Ready Creek, the South Kalmiopsis (Wilderness), and the Chetco River,” the letter stated. “We believe that because of recent developments ... there is an increased imperative for action to support mining withdrawals under the guidelines of both federal agencies.”
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Members of Oregon’s Congressional delegation asked for the withdrawal back in 1999. The letter states that “since that time, these wild watersheds and their beautiful rivers have been increasingly threatened by irresponsible mining activities.”
The letter goes on to state that USFS “has also found that residents in the rural areas around the proposed mine would be negatively impacted by mining.”
“While impacts would be significant and could be devastating, only about 17 jobs would be created,” the letter stated.
Southwest Oregon Mining Association Vice President Ron Gibson said that group and the Waldo Mining District also plan to send letters to Salazar and Vilsack.
“We have a letter going to them also in question of the legalities of them to come and take property that they gave away,” Gibson said. “It is constitutionally unlawful for them to do what they’re doing.”
Gibson maintains that miners’ rights were codified by Congress through an 1866 mineral grant, and questions the jurisdiction of federal agencies to regulate mining activities.
Any decision to withdraw the region from mining could result in court challenges and litigation from mining associations, he said.
“I think there are grounds for constitutional challenges to that issue,” Gibson said. “We’re going to wait and see what they do. I assure you there will probably be a very serious legal challenge over their validity for doing that.”
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