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No doubt you scoff. But did you know that stream fed sluice boxes and even a gold pan can be considered a pollutant "point source" under the Clean Water Act? Which can lead to this....

http://vtdigger.org/2016/06/27/state-reminds-gold-prospectors-to-obtain-permits-for-sluice-boxes/

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20160628/THISJUSTIN/306289995

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wow that's just crazy. Soon we'll need a permit to take a piss in the woods and have to wear a helmet to walk down the road.Of course its for our own safety.

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These are exactly the reasons AMRA, PLP and other groups working to protect our rights are so important and deserve our support and also as had been said so many times before on this forum... Why it is also so important that we police ourselves and give those whom wish to end prospecting no reason to oppose our activities.

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1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

No doubt you scoff. But did you know that stream fed sluice boxes and even a gold pan can be considered a pollutant "point source" under the Clean Water Act? Which can lead to this....

http://vtdigger.org/2016/06/27/state-reminds-gold-prospectors-to-obtain-permits-for-sluice-boxes/

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20160628/THISJUSTIN/306289995

Some of these officials might want to check out the amount of lead sitting in the bottom of my sluice after a day prospecting and then explain to me exactly me how I have contributed to polluting the water.

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This is OLD Vermont news....what really galled me when I was in New England last year, was that Vermont says you cannot pan for gold with a digging tool other than your HANDS !!!!   And in New Hampshire, you legally cannot use a shovel to feed your sluice, altho you can use your gold pan as a shovel of sorts. New Hampshire sells $50 permits for gold dredging but in Vermont, even if you get the sluice permit, you are required to tell the state exactly where you will be digging.

In the White Mountains NF in New Hampshire, sluicing is ok without a permit. But at the spot I wanted to go to, the road had been washed out by a hurricane the year before and was impassable. Glad I checked with a local NF office before I tried to make the drive to that road.

Plus, I was told that Trout Unlimited has pretty much shutdown all suction dredging in Maine. They would declare a state emergency every time they wanted to shut down yet another stream . The east branch of the Swift river is about the only place you can still dredge in Maine and then only for 3 months of the year. 15 years ago, you could dredge almost any stream. Not much gold left there anymore I was told.

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