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Washington Suction Dredges
2007-10-15 |
Washington
Suction
Dredgers
What is their true
impact on the State's
rivers and streams?
By Chuck Cox, with Thanks to Ron Wilson
Resources Coalition for the math and stats
When you come right down to it, exactly
What is the impact of suction dredging on
Washington State's rivers and streams?
lf you listen to rabid environmentalists
and some members of the Department of
Fish and Wildlife, suction dredgers are
salmon-rapists and trout-killers. But,
based on information provided by the
Resources Coalition, that really isn't the
case at all. Let's take a look at what's
really happing in Washington's rivers
and streams.
According to the Bureau of Land
Managements Portland recordation office.
there are 338 active placer claims in
Washington State. Let's assume for a
moment that all of them are being
worked during those periods when their
waterways are open to Class lll equipment
(e.9., suction dredges.)
We'll also assume that each of these
placer claims is 1,500 feet in length. That
gives a total of 507,000 linear feet, or 96
linear miles of claims in the state.
Here's another assumption: each
claim has 100 linear feet of usable working
area. Of course, that is probably too
high a number, but let's be intentionally
generous Thus, going back to the 338
claims, that breaks down to 33,800 linear
feet. or 6.4 miles of workable stream
area.
Lastly, according to the US Environ
mental Protection Agency, the State of
Washington has about 70,000 miles of
Rivers and streams within its boundaries
Now, let's take all these numbers and
do some figuring."
6.4 miles of usable rivers and
streams divided by 70,000 miles of
Washington State rivers and streams
Equals
...
0.00009 miles
0.00009 is a decimal representation
of the total miles of streams in the state
that could be affected by dredging on
those 338 claims during that magic 60-
day period. To put it another way,
that's .009% of the total miles of Washington
State streams!
Truth be known, remember the "100
feet of workable claim area"? When one
considers the fact that a lot of claims are
held and never worked at all, that percentage
is probably a whole lot smaller.
The bottom line? The nature of small
Scale prospecting (and in this case, suction
dredging) is insignificant when compared
to reality. Sorta makes one wonder
why there's so much hullabaloo about
our endeavors, doesn't it?
Remember, .009%! That's a pretty
small number (even if it's purposely inflated.)
| don't think the salmon and bull
trout have much to worry about
Chuck Cox
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