California issues $11 million fine to illegal gold mine
California state regulators imposed a record $11 million fine for repeated failure to correct violations of the states’ Surface Mining and Reclamation Act on the operators of a renegade gold mine in the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento.
The state Mining and Geology Board had previously fined the owners of the Big Cut Mine south of Placerville more than $1 million. Those fines have not been paid and Mining and Geology Board executive officer Stephen Testa told the Associated Press that he doubts the state can collect on the $11 million fine.
Regulators say the miners have continued to scrape valuable ore from a ridge about 45 miles east of the state capital even though two of the operators Joseph Hardesty and Rick Churches, also face criminal charges in El Dorado County. State agencies and county prosecutors say the ongoing mining operations are illegal, have polluted a nearby creek and threaten to collapse 150-year-old mining tunnels.
Testa had recommended the board impose a $2.5 million penalty, more than enough to cover his agency’s expenses and the estimated cost of cleaning up the site.
But the board voted 6-0 to impose the entire $11 million penalty allowed by law, based on two years of multiple violations at a maximum penalty of $5,000 per violation per day. It’s the largest penalty ever imposed by the board, Testa said.
The miners sent no representatives to the board meeting, did not contest the fine, and their attorney, William Brewer of San Diego, did not return a telephone message. Hardesty has previously contended that he has a historic right to operate the mine over the objections of state and local authorities.
The owners have ignored $850,000 in penalties and multiple cease-and-desist orders over the last three years, expanding what officials say is an unpermitted and illegal surface mining operation.
Aside from the recent fines, the owners never paid more than $220,000 in penalties levied a decade ago, despite losing an appeal in court.
By the time investigators used a search warrant to inspect the property again in November, the operation 1.5 miles south of Placerville had spilled beyond the 150-acre site’s southern boundary onto about 2.6 acres owned by the El Dorado Irrigation District.
Despite the earlier orders, the operators had increased the size of an ore processing plant, dug several additional water retention ponds, brought in multiple pieces of heavy mining equipment, and installed a truck scale and water pipelines.
