Environmental planning in regulation and management of instream gravel mining in California

Abstract

In California, the mining of sand and gravel from rivers and streams is presently regulated under the state's Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 (SMARA), with 113 different countries and cities designated as lead agencies for approving reclamation plans and issuing special use permits. These agencies rarely have the technical expertise or resouces to assess cumulative impacts of instream mining or to monitor the sometimes subtle and frequently delayed off-site environmental impacts. Moreover, the concept of ‘reclamation’ is unsuitable for instream mining whose effects propagate upstream and downstream during mining and cannot be reversed by subsequent on-site reclamation. Instream operators also fall under the jurisdiction of other agencies, such as the US Army Corps of Engineers and the California Department of Fish and Game, but these agencies lack resources and a consistent approach to evaluate and mitigate the environmental effects of instream mining. Instream gravel mining can be properly addressed only by comprehensive environmental planning that evaluates all potential aggregate sources, including upland deposits, and the environmental impacts of their extraction. Aggregate extraction from rivers must be managed on the scale of river basins, while the demand for aggregate and the various sources of its supply must be managed on the scale of production-consumption regions.