California Gold Mining Hobbyists Get Out Your Shovels and Pans, Says New Law
August 11, 2009 Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis 
Photo Source: The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft Volume 23, History of California; Volume 6: 1848-1859. Published 1888. Information courtesy of SusquehannaTurnpike.org.
Anyone believe in time travel? Well for the next two year, recreational river gold miners in California are going to feel like they have gone back to the early 1850s.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has just signed a bill making them temporarily have to say goodbye to their dredging equipment and hello to shovels and pans.
The new law, formerly Senate bill 670, goes into effect immediately. It initiates a “a temporary ban on motorized suction dredge mining in California until the California Department of Fish and Game finishes its court ordered overhaul of regulations governing this practice,” said Sen. Pat Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa, Calif.), who sponsored the bill.
The moratorium will not affect instream suction dredging operations performed for regular maintenance of energy or water supply management infrastructure, flood control, or navigational purposes.