Section 5800 - Mining operations(a) It is unlawful to conduct any mining operation in the Trinity and Klamath River Fish and Game District between July 1 and November 30, except when the debris, substances, tailings or other effluent from those operations do not and cannot pass into the waters in that district.(b) It is unlawful between July 1 and November 30 to pollute, muddy, contaminate, or roil the waters of the Trinity and Klamath River Fish and Game District, or to deposit in or cause, suffer, or procure to be deposited in, permit to pass into, or place where it can pass into, those waters, any debris, substance or tailings from hydraulic, placer, milling, or other mining operation affecting the clarity of those waters. The clarity of those waters shall be deemed affected when those waters at a point a distance of one mile below the confluence of the Klamath River and the Salmon River or at a point a distance of one mile below the confluence of the South Fork of the Trinity River and the Trinity River, contain 50 parts per million, by weight, of suspended matter, not including vegetable matter in suspension and suspended matter occurring in the stream or streams due to an act of God.(c) It is unlawful, between July 1 and November 30 to carry on or operate any hydraulic mine of any kind on, along, or in any waters flowing into the Trinity and Klamath River Fish and Game District.(d) Nothing in this section shall prevent the operation of a hydraulic mine where the tailings, substance, or debris, or other effluent from that mine does not or will not pass into the waters of the Trinity and Klamath River Fish and Game District, between July 1 and November 30, and any person, firm, or corporation engaged in hydraulic mining shall have the right until July 15 to use water for the purpose of cleaning up.(e) Any structure or contrivance that is used to violate this section is a public nuisance.(f) Any person, firm, or corporation that maintains or permits a structure or contrivance used in violating this section is guilty of maintaining a public nuisance.(g) It is the duty of the district attorney of the county where the violation occurs or the acts creating the public nuisance occur to bring action to abate that nuisance.Ca. Fish and Game Code § 5800
Amended by Stats 2023 ch 132 (AB 1760),s 114, eff. 1/1/2024.Enacted by Stats. 1957, Ch. 456.