SECTIONS 5800-5803 - California Statutes

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.