Monday April 10, 2017 Oregon legislators pass SB3 which unfairly over regulates gold suction dredging. There was testimony submitted at the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee public hearing that shows the environmental impact of suction dredging on the environment and fish habitat is less than significant and that suction dredging also has a beneficial impact on the environment and fish habitat, scientific, peer reviewed studies were presented. This bill is designed to discourage suction dredging by placing a high financial burden on the dredger as well as restricting locations to dredge as well as other restrictions. Why is it that they don’t hear the truth, is it incompetence, is it corruption, is it the fact that they are blinded by lies? I really don’t know the answer but I can speculate. All legislation and regulation should be based on facts, scientific, peer reviewed facts and not on assumption, opinion, or conjecture. Even the opinion of a professional such as a college professor or a field biologist, may be the basis of a hypothesis, until that hypothesis is proven by science and peer reviewed is still nothing more than an opinion.
On Monday April 10, 2017 at the Senate vote there were 21 yea’s and 9 Nay’s. 9 Senators see the truth, Sen. Herman Baertschiger [R] is one of those senators that knows the truth and here is the video of his speech from April 10, 2017:
Appalachian Prospectors Gold Prospecting Adventures 