Paul Straub Basic Member Posts:244 
| 15 Apr 2014 06:17 AM |
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Hello all GPAA members, this was posted on the Coker Creek chapter site. East coast prospectors take note, especially the underlined part near the bottom.
To all Recreational Prospectors.
The TDEC (The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation) has just sent us their final draft of the 2014-15 Recreational Prospecting Permit. The news is not good. Many changes were made from the last draft that we posted and from the way Allen Trotter and I (Chuck Pharis) read it, it looks like over 90% of the gold bearing waters in Eastern Tennessee will be closed to all prospecting. This includes panning and dredging. We just received this and have a lot of reading to do. The final draft refers to web site links that define what waters are restricted and or totally banned. There are 185 pages in the 303d list alone!
Please read the attached Final Draft, then look at ALL the web links and make your comments here. Do not just read the Final Draft.
If this permit goes through on June 30, 2014, recreational prospecting as we know it in the state of Tennessee will virtually be over.
Public hearings will be on Thursday May 15 in the 3 locations shown in the attached notice. Note that anyone may make written comments and send them directly to TDEC. We ask that everyone who reads this notice, send in your comments ASAP. We ask that you do not panic; In addition to your personal comments, tell the state that banning recreational prospecting in Tennessee will hurt tourism, family outings, and a good source of income for the Eastern part of the state. All we need is some simple State prospecting rules and if we follow them we will NOT hurt the Tennessee State waters! Strong words might help but panic and threats will not. Please use common sense when responding with your comments and suggestions. If there is any way you can show up at one of the public hearings, please do so but be prepared to speak and have your facts straight. If you can’t attend (I am sure it was set up on a Thursday for a reason), then send them your comments ASAP.
You do not have to be a resident of Tennessee to send in your comments or to attend the hearings. Many come from out of state to prospect here. This permit will affect everyone, not just the prospectors in Tennessee.
I have posted the Final Draft and web links on our GPAA chapter forum. You must sign into the forum to read everything. There is too much to email. Go to http://cokercreekgpaa.com Click on the forum link and join. Then look at the topic “2014 Tennessee Recreational Prospecting Permit Final Draft. Your comments are welcome and encouraged. TDEC and other Tennessee State agencies do read our forum.
What else can we do: Allen Trotter has a call into TDEC to talk with them about the permit. Allen will let us know if anything comes from that phone call when they both talk. TWRA and TDEC had taken over a year to put this together, now we only have a few months to respond.
We suggest that if you have any contacts on the State level: Senators, Congressmen, Governor, etc; Please send them this mess and see if it can be blocked ASAP.
When you read 303d, you will see the Tennessee waterways that will be banned or restricted. On that list is Little River and 11.5 miles of Coker Creek. We believe this means we will lose Doc Rogers and the rest of Coker Creek from the head waters to the Polk County border. Yes that means our GPAA property too. This permit covers all public and private land in the State of Tennessee.
I will not comment anymore at this time. We need to do something right now to stop this madness. Please step up and help keep recreational prospecting in the state of Tennessee.
Chuck Pharis
President: Coker Creek GPAA Tennessee chapter.
Posted: Monday April 14, 2014.
http://cokercreekgpaa.com/forum/index.php
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ARTHUR WAUGH Advanced Member Posts:967
| 15 Apr 2014 07:50 AM |
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Paul--please put up the email address for comments to the state so that we can sent them in. Being out on the west coast, I don't want to dig through 180+ pages.
303d waters are usually temperature driven, and that has to do more with shade than anything, so prospecting is not a big driver in that issue. You guys also need to do away the "r" wording, and refer to "small scale mining" |
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Christina Hughes Greenhorn Posts:2
| 15 Apr 2014 02:52 PM |
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Here is the info posted by one of our Coker Creek GPAA members about emailing for the TN Prospecting permit.
NOW you'll have to follow this as this is what they told me to set it up for them to send it to the right part of TDEC to be read and added to the writing hearing.
Rule one from me to those who use it........Always Be Nice Respectful followed by to whom reads this etc. you know the ropes.
Ok Email for your comments is water.permits@tn.gov make the SUBJECT Gold Prospecting Final Draft with out that Subject it will go in the trash 
Please Respect and watch your words and be nice.
let them know how good we are bout cleaning creeks and the banks and busting up debris from trees and the hiking paths etc. show what good we do to where if these creeks taking away wont get cleaned due to us not there to do it and TDEC and no one else is going to walk the creek like we do to clean it up.
Please Please be nice and respectful on doing your email comments and the use of that email. |
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JOHN DORVALGreenhorn Posts:
| 18 Apr 2014 03:30 PM |
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Here is what I wrote to them:
To whom it may concern
I am writing in concern of the final draft of the Tennessee Gold Prospecting Permit by The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. I find these regulations to be overbearing and very unfair. These regulations are going to regulate prospectors right out of the rivers and streams of Tennessee. Recreational gold dredging causes less than significant harm to the environment and I am basing this statement on actual scientific data that has been gathered over the years from other states such as Alaska and California where gold dredging is significant, this is not just my opinion. I am attaching some reports from these studies that have been written by Joseph Greene a biologist who is retired from the USEPA and he is more than qualified to interpret these scientific studies that have been performed by such agencies as the Army Corps of Engineers and the USEPA, please take notice of the cited literature these are actual scientific studies that have been performed on the environmental effects of small scale gold dredging. Although these studies have been performed in other states the same laws of physics, biology and so on apply in the state of Tennessee. Are we to say that the agencies that performed these studies are wrong.
Gold prospecting, panning, sluicing, and dredging have positive effects on the environment. We are the only group on the rivers and streams of America who are removing toxic metals from our waterways. Our modern sluice boxes captures 95% of all heavy metals. We are removing metals such as lead, mercury, and iron. Lead and mercury are very harmful to the water, to the fish and to the humans that consume fish.
Are other groups that use the waterways of Tennessee being as heavily regulated and as heavily charged such as motor boaters. How many motor boats are on the waterways of Tennessee and do they have to be removed as far away from a body of water as a dredge does to refuel. Outboard motors are in direct contact with the water, dredge motors are not. Many outboard motors exhaust directly into the water potentially raising the water temperature, this is not the case with a dredge motor. Anglers kill more fish than dredgers do, we kill none. Rafters and canoes contribute pollution, I have seen many beer and soda cans, bottles and other trash left behind after a capsize. I feel that we prospectors are unfairly being targeted.
These heavy handed regulations are going to kill a tourism industry in the state of Tennessee it may not be a large industry but it is one that can be developed and one that can be responsibly regulated.
I would like to know what information was used in arriving at this final draft, what studies were performed or which studies were used.
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BRIAN HERBSTREITGreenhorn Posts:
| 18 Apr 2014 04:37 PM |
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Based on what I read last year, I thought that Coker Creek was going to get a exclusion?
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JOHN DORVALGreenhorn Posts:
| 20 Apr 2014 06:16 AM |
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I e-mailed TDEC I also e-mailed all of the members of the House in the state of Tennessee, I still have to e-mail the Senate and the Governor. I also signed the petition and shared it all over facebook with other prospecting groups. We need to hit this hard and not let up and that is our only chance of changing this.
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CHUCK PHARISGreenhorn Posts:
| 21 Apr 2014 09:57 AM |
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Brian, they did leave our GPAA Coker Creek leased property alone last year. Now they changed their mind and as of June 30, all of Coker Creek above us, through our property and past our property to the county line will be totally closed to all prospecting.
Chuck Pharis
President: Coker Creek Tennessee GPAA chapter. |
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Christina HughesGreenhorn Posts:2
| 21 Apr 2014 10:46 AM |
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There is a petition concerning our 2104-5 Tennessee Recreational prospecting Permit at this link:
http://www.ipetitions.com...general-permit-for-2
This is a on-line petition web site. It was posted there by one of our members.
We need everyone to read and sign it ASAP. Do not sign it here. You must sign it on the ipetitions web site.
Just fill in your name, and email address and click on SIGN. You may also join the site, but it is not required. If you want to get involved, signing this petition is a great way to show your support.
Please sign and pass it on far and wide!!! |
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AARON DECKROWGreenhorn Posts:
| 24 Apr 2014 12:11 PM |
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Guys please sign this petition you DO NOT have to be a Tennessee resident to sign this petition as it effects anyone wanting to come to the state to prospect. Help us stand up for our rights.
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JOHN DORVALGreenhorn Posts:
| 01 Sep 2014 08:45 AM |
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I have seen the new permit for small scale/ recreational dredging and it sure does discourage any individual from desiring to dredge in the state of Tennessee. I am seeing a trend here that has been sweeping our nation to prohibit or discourage small scale suction dredging activities. Our elected officials are presented scientific facts that support small scale suction dredging has minimal impact on the environment but yet they ignore it. You have to ask why that is. I can think of one reason that the special interest environmental groups such as trout unlimited have money to buy politicians to support their false claims. How are we going to stop or counter this activity as a group of prospectors. One thing we can do is vote these corrupt politicians out of office, the majority seem to be Democrats, I think we have a better chance with Republicans, correct me if I am wrong. Another thing is we have to hold our elected officials accountable. Tom Massie is not going to change it for us nor is Brandon Johnson, it is we together, as a group that can bring about change. When things like this happen we should not question what is the GPAA doing about it we got to ask what am I doing about it, because I am the GPAA, you are the GPAA.
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Eric TrypusGreenhorn Posts:2
| 26 Mar 2022 03:15 PM |
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So what happened do u need a permit to pan and sluice
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Earl WebbGreenhorn Posts:11
| 29 Apr 2024 01:58 AM |
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I just started back prospecting because my young grandkids are now big enough to go with me and they like looking for rocks and digging ,,! I live in Tennessee and use to go to a Coker Creek and do some gold prospecting about 2 weekends a month , until the State idiots stopped dredging and high banking in the creeks and streams ! I am a retired wildlife conservation officer from Mississippi and moved to Tennessee in 2000 . After looking at all the stupid rules and regulations and high prices of licenses , and to still see after ,15 plus years, recreational prospecting with anything but hand fed equipment, I wrote my state congressman and senator and told them that the sportsmen and recreational prospectors were getting screwed simply because the State of Tennessee has officials that are too damn lazy to do their jobs and get out and ticket litter bugs and people that are destroying our streams by under cutting the banks, etc, and instead of welcoming new hunters and fishermen, they are pricing them out of the industry by increasing the license fees , etc, for Tennessee residents ! This is nothing but pure stupidity ! Every resident of the state of Tennessee that hunts, fishes, prospects, gem or rock hunter's and campers and hikers ought to flood the state offices with complaints and demand that our right to the woods and waters of the State of Tennessee , stop being infringed on by these lazy, tree hugging , liberal, politicians and State department heads ! Recreational gold prospecting with a 3 or 4 inch dredge or high banker does not do a fraction of 1 percent of the , damage to a stream that normal rains and high water from rains do ! If the enforcement officers would get off their lazy asses and start ticketing trespassers and litter bugs and run the dope addicts out of our woods and parks, things would be fine ! Tennessee has lost revenue from prospectors that purchased equipment, supplies and food and gas from local small businesses and hotels and restaurants ! With everything so high now days, people can't afford to run to Disney world or to Florida, so they are returning to our natural resources ! I hope every single person that reads this will call and write their politicians and let them know that you are pissed off and that they do have to have your vote to get the elected!
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