5800-5803
FISH AND GAME CODE
SECTION 5800-5803
5800. (a) It is unlawful to conduct any mining operations in the Trinity and Klamath River Fish and Game District between July 1st and November 30th except when the debris, substances, tailings or other effluent from such operations do not and cannot pass into the waters in that district. (b) It is unlawful between July 1st and November 30th to pollute, muddy, contaminate, or roil the waters of the Trinity and Klamath River Fish and Game District. It is unlawful between those dates to deposit in or cause, suffer, or procure to be deposited in, permit to pass into, or place where it can pass into, such waters, any debris, substance or tailings from hydraulic, placer, milling, or other mining operation affecting the clarity of such waters. The clarity of such waters shall be deemed affected when such 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 fifty (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 1st and November 30th to carry on or operate any hydraulic mine of any kind on, along, or in any waters flowing into the Trinity and Klamath River District. However, nothing herein contained shall prevent the operation of a hydraulic mine where the tailings, substance, or debris, or other effluent therefrom, does not or will not pass into the waters of the Trinity and Klamath River Fish and Game District, between such dates, and any person, firm, or corporation engaged in hydraulic mining shall have the right until the fifteenth day of July to use water for the purpose of cleaning up. (d) Any structure or contrivance which causes or contributes, in whole or in part, to the condition, the causing of which is in this section prohibited, is a public nuisance, and any person, firm, or corporation maintaining or permitting it is guilty of maintaining a public nuisance, and it is the duty of the district attorney of the county where the condition occurs or the acts creating the public nuisance occur, to bring action to abate such nuisance. 5801. Section 5800 does not affect any other laws applying to the territory included in the Trinity and Klamath River Fish and Game District which relate to birds, mammals, and fish. 5802. Section 5800 does not apply to the construction, repair, or maintenance of public works by the Federal or State Government, or any political subdivision thereof. 5803. No provision of this article is a limitation on the authority of the State Water Resources Control Board or any California Regional Water Quality Control Board to adopt and enforce additional discharge requirements or prohibitions.