CENTRAL VIRGINIA GOLD PROSPECTORS NEXT MEETING MAY 15, 2004 The next meeting of the Central Virginia Gold Prospectors will be May 15, 2004 at Small Country Campground, Louisa, VA at 10:00 AM. DIRECTIONS: From Richmond Area: Interstate 64 to exit 143 (Rt.208-North)...go 2.5 miles and turn LEFT at small sign onto 640 and go 150 yards and turn RIGHT at small sign on 649. Go 2 miles (bearing left on 649) into Small Country Campground. Campground entrance will be on the right. As you drive up the dirt road, pavillion is on right. From Harrisonburg Area: Route 33 East- go through Ruckersville, Barboursville and Gordonsville to Trevillians-at intersection of Routes 33 and 22 turn left onto Route 22 then take immediate RIGHT onto Rote 613 - go to Route 649 and turn LEFT - go 2 miles (bearing left on 649) into Small Country Campground. From Manassas Area: South on Route 29 to Route 15 South. Take 15 South through Orange to Gordonsville - turn LEFT onto Route 33 - take 33 to Trevillians - turn LEFT onto Route 22 and immediately turn RIGHT onto Route 613 - go to Route 649 and turn LEFT. Go 2 miles (bearing left on 649) into Small Country Campground. PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING REPORT ON OUR LAST MEETING CAREFULLY--IT CONTAINS SOME VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT WILL HAVE AN EFFECT ON ALL VIRGINIA RECREATIONAL GOLD PROSPECTING: CENTRAL VIRGINIA GOLD PROSPECTORS REPORT ON MEETING APRIL 17, 2004 On April 17, 2004 at 10:15AM, President Ben Vaughan called the meeting to order. The meeting began by discussing the proposed bylaws. It was decided that the purpose of the club should be changed to read "recreational prospecting". With that change the proposed bylaws were voted on and passed. Then the question of tax exempt status for the club came up. A report on a conversation with IRS was read and then a discussion followed. At this point this is an unresolved question. Next, the liability insurance policy was discussed. A vote was taken on whether to get the policy and passed. This will be done by the next meeting. There was a question about a "MEMBER" being covered and what constituted a member. This is a question that is going to have to be more clearly defined, especially when we find a piece of property to lease for club use. We all need to be thinking about what constitutes an "active" member as opposed to "inactive" and also what regulations are going to have to be instituted about using the property. EVERYONE WILL BE VERY INTERESTED IN THE FOLLOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Recently, Grace Cartwright, Ben Warner and Tim Bradshaw did a dredging demonstration for the VMRC to show them how dredging is done for recreational prospecting (using an up to 4 inch dredge). This report was also presented to the Northern Virginia Gold Prospectors group at their May 1 meeting. What follows is a report from Grace on the demonstration and also what she told us at our last meeting. This report was also presented to the Northern Virginia Gold Prospectors group at their May 1 meeting. As many of you may already know, several months ago the Central VA Gold Prospectors Assoc nominated me to be the VA state representative of the GPAA. I believe this occurred before, or as your club was forming, but several of your members were members of both clubs at the time so I hope you feel that your club also nominated me. I was nominated because, with my professional experience with the state agencies, it was believed that I could possibly reverse their feeling that recreational gold dredging should NOT be allowed in VA. To start the story, a certain gentleman (his name doesn’t matter) decided he wanted to dredge in Kelly’s Ford. He told everyone that he was looking for "gold" but the homeowners in the area rightly (by many accounts) believed that he was looking for historical artifacts and got him banned from the river. He went straight to his legislator and tried to get a bill introduced to allow for dredging in Virginia’s waterways. In Virginia no bill will ever be introduced that could possibly impact the environment without the input of several of the state agencies including the VA Department of Inland Games and Fisheries (VADIGF), VA Marine Resource Commission (VMRC), VA Department of Mines and Minerals (VADMM), Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the VA based US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE). In an effort to "educate" these agencies, the gentleman held a dredging demo in which he proceeded to pour gasoline into the water and created a sediment plume behind the dredge that had everyone there cringing because of how thick the plume was and how far it existed! Since this gentleman had only run a dredge about a handful of times he ran much more material through the dredge than would normally be done creating an abnormally dense plume. Luckily Ben Warner and myself were able to attend the meeting where the agencies present at the demo were going to tell the legislator, along with several others on the Rappahannock River Commission, that dredging should NOT be allowed. Ben and I were able to convince the commission that the matter should be looked into further and that we would provide scientific studies and information necessary to educate representatives from the various agencies so they could come to an "educated" decision about whether recreational gold dredging should be allowed in VA. After many months of research, (many thanks to Ben Warner for all his hard work!), a CD was produced that included all the scientific studies on the impacts of dredging on the environment and any other related information that could be found. The CD also included the permitting requirements of all the states that allow dredging. The content of this CD was presented in a Powerpoint presentation along, with a dredging video, in a 3+ hour meeting with all representatives from the state agencies. Everyone present was duly impressed and requested a "NEW" demo of the dredging procedure. The demo was set up for last October but unfortunately the weather didn’t co-operate. On April 12th, in the pouring rain, the demo finally was able to take place. It was a resounding success. At the end of the demo, the representatives present said that while they were once dead set against permitting recreational gold dredging in VA they had now changed their minds. In an effort to minimize the impact of the permitting processes on the VMRC, who would be issuing the permits, their representative suggested they might permit the clubs and allow them to educate and police each other. This would mean that anyone who wanted to dredge in VA would have to register their dredge with one of the clubs and obtain education of where and when they can or cannot dredge. As I understand it, at this time, the where would be limited to: 1. within the gold belt region (not in the tidewater area where high concentrations of pollutants exist!), 2. outside of national parks (regulated by FEDERAL regulations), 3.outside of known historical sites (such as Kelly’s Ford), 4.outside of known endangered species sites and, 5. outside the spawning range of certain fish (only during spawning) to be determined by the state biologists. The when would only be limited by the time period the fish are spawning and only with in their spawning range. The way I understood the discussion, the clubs would provide information on the limitations of the permit to those that want to dredge and keep a registration of those that have been provided with that information. The individual would then be responsible for following ALL the guidelines. If they do not they stand to loose their dredging privileges. NOTHING HAS BEEN FORMALIZED! It is still under discussion. The agencies can STILL DECIDE ***NOT*** to allow dredging. The next step is for me, as point of contact and your State Representative, is to provide VMRC with a count of all the dredges (and what type (size) they are) known to exist in VA. They would like a count of all those both in the clubs and outside if possible. They are NOT asking for a list of names at this time … just a count. The list of names could be kept within the clubs at this time and the clubs could provide me with: 1. Location of individual (City or county) 2. Number and Size of dredges owned 3. Years of experience dredging. It would also be nice to include, in this survey, anyone outside the state that knows they would like to dredge in VA. The clubs can decide if they want me to continue discussions with the agencies to have the permitting to go through the clubs. Or they can decide to wait until the package is presented by the agencies before they vote. Either way, the final decision will have to be agreed to by the members of the clubs. LIKE I SAID BEFORE… THIS IS NOT A DONE DEAL! One question that has come up is why High-Banking wasn’t included in the discussion about dredging with the agencies. One reason is that if you view the permitting requirements for most of the states that allow dredging with 4" or less nozzles, they DO NOT ALLOW HIGH-BANKING. The other reason is that without a settling pond the amount of sediment in a plume created with the NORMAL use of a High-Banker WOULD impact the waterway. If we had included High-Banking into the discussions the issues could possibly have been clouded. This does NOT mean that the issue will not be addressed. I just felt that to include it at this time would, shall we say, MUDDY the waters. Once the dredging permits are in place I will be happy to pursue the issue of High-Banking. I hope you have found this letter informative. I personally do not own a dredge but I believe, as a professional expert in sediment transport, that recreational gold dredging, with a nozzle of 4" or less, truly has minimal impact on the environment. It is this belief that made me continue my work for you to get dredging permitted even after my personal circumstances changed. I have tried to present your case in a professional, scientific manner and I think I have accomplished what I have set out to accomplish. If, as a group, you feel that it should be handled in a different manner or by another individual please let me know and I will step down as state representative and let that person take over. Thank you for your time! Grace Cartwright Grace can be contacted at gracec@vims.edu BE SURE TO PUT THE WORD 'DREDGE' IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL MESSAGE SO IT ISN'T INADVERTENTLY DELETED. We all owe Grace, Ben and Tim a big THANK YOU for all their hard work in doing this on behalf of all of us!!!!!!! A Great Job Well Done. The above will be discussed at our upcoming meeting--we need your input. Please be there. Permission Slips -- We voted on and approved authorization to order printed permission slips (wallet size) to have signed by landowners who give any of us permission to prospect on their property. This will be a two part card, one part of which will go to the landowner and the other part being for the person prospecting. These should be ready for distribution at the next meeting (May 15). Newspaper Advertising -- Henry Waldrop told us about some prices for advertising in local newspapers. He also talked about a conversation he had with a feature writer who would like to do a story on us and gold prospecting in Virginia. This would be free and probably get a lot more interest than a small paid ad. Everyone agreed to go this route. We discussed the CVGP web page that David Saum does for us. It was noted that it brings us a number of interested persons and that we certainly appreciate Dave doing the site for the club. It also has a lot of links to some very useful and interesting information. Before adjourning, the raffle drawing for two nice Australian nuggets was held--one of our lucky members won both nuggets. He said one was his wife's ticket. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Plans are in the works to have a cookout for the club, probably at the home of Bob & Sandy Stowe in Madison, VA. This would be in place of the actual meeting scheduled for June 19. There will be plenty of food and also panning competitions (using real gold). This will be discussed in greater detail at our May 15th meeting. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hope to see all of you at our next meeting. Things are starting to happen--this is your club and your input is needed and welcomed.