ENVIRONMENTAL-PLANNING IN REGULATION AND MANAGEMENT OF INSTREAM GRAVEL MINING IN CALIFORNIA

In California, the mining of sand and gravel from rivers and streams i s presently regulated under the state's Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 (SMARA), with 113 different countries and cities designat ed as lead agencies for approving reclamation plans and issuing specia l use permits. These agencies rarely have the technical expertise or r esources to assess cumulative impacts of instream mining or to monitor the sometimes subtle and frequently delayed off-site environmental im pacts. Moreover, the concept of 'reclamation' is unsuitable for instre am mining whose effects propagate upstream and downstream during minin g and cannot be reversed by subsequent on-site reclamation. Instream o perators also fall under the jurisdiction of other agencies, such as t he US Army Corps of Engineers and the California Department of Fish an d Game, but these agencies lack resources and a consistent approach to evaluate and mitigate the environmental effects of instream mining. I nstream gravel mining can be properly addressed only by comprehensive environmental planning that evaluates all potential aggregate sources, including upland deposits, and the environmental impact of their extr action. Aggregate extraction from rivers must be managed on the scale of scale of river basins, while the demand for aggregate and the vario us sources of its supply must be managed on the scale of production-co nsumption regions.