The Glitter Among the Gunk

Recent gold prices at over $1,000.00 per ounce have fueled a modern gold rush that has sent hundreds to the hills and mountains of California to try their luck. This is not just a story of plucky individualists living on the edge, it is also a story of land use rights and the environment. The miners use lower-impact methods of panning and sluicing, but they are also using suction dredging in the quest for gold. Suction dredging sucks the river bottom up and through a sluice to isolate gold flakes; then the sediment is sent back into the river. Environmentalists point out that this is harmful to aquatic habitat and can stir up mercury pollution from historical mining. And the extraction is intensive: 10 or more such dredges can be found in a single mile of river. California passed a law in 2009 banning suction dredging to limit this practice. ...