Juneau was built on mining. Can recreational mining at Sheep Creek continue?

The Alaska Gastineau Mill closed in 1921 due to ore that was too low grade to mine cost-effectively. Its remnants are visible on the hill above Thane Road — and below the road on the Sheep Creek Delta miners are still searching for gold from the tailings.

However, impacts from a type of their prospecting known as suction dredging are being investigated by state officials in response to complaints from residents and recreational users of the area.

The investigation is being conducted by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Mining, Land and Water (DMLW) after receiving a letter dated June 3 from the Thane Neighborhood Association (TNA).

Concerns expressed by the association include suction gold dredgers “assuming that the whole delta is open to their activity, not just the Gastineau tailings sand portion on the northwest shoreline.”

The letter alleges suction dredging disturbs not only Thane Road residents, but many others living in Juneau who use the Sheep Creek area for fishing, dog walking, family outings and other recreational pursuits.

“Formerly hard packed and firm sand at the low tide line is now soft underfoot and riddled with quicksand, a hazard to those fishing along the shoreline,” the letter states.

“The Sheep Creek delta and its subsidiary Gastineau tailings beach have been a designated fisheries enhancement area and a mineral closure area for decades, so allowing such a destructive gold-mining activity as suction dredging seems an obviously incompatible use of this area.”

The Southeast Regional Lands Office (SERO) conducted site visits this spring. Next week, DNR’s Mining Section will join the Lands Section in Juneau for a site visit and meeting in Thane, according to Joe Byrnes, the department’s legislative liaison.

In an email, Brynes wrote, “Enforcement actions for unauthorized suction dredging activities would involve issuing a Trespass Notice and Order to Quit, either by SERO if the activity occurs outside the boundaries of an active or closed mineral property, or by the Mining Section, depending on the specific circumstances.”

The dredging activity has been permitted for three suction dredgers since 2019 under land use permits in relation to Generally Allowed Use (GAU) dredging.

These permits authorize the placement of the floating suction dredge itself. Two of the permits expire this year, and one expires in 2026, according to DNR.

Additionally, one of the permits is in default for lack of payment.

DMLW delayed sending overdue fee notices to coordinate with the Mining Section on a comprehensive approach to achieve compliance. The division is also actively coordinating with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to ensure the applicable water quality standards are followed.

Generally, discharges from small dredges in marine waters disperse quickly, and water quality impacts are limited and short-term, according to DEC.

DNR’s administrative code for GAU contains strictures against abuse of state lands.

In the letter, TNA claims suction gold dredging has caused multiple and ongoing violations of DNR provisions in the shoreline and tidelands area. TNA requested the Department of Natural Resources adjust the GAU guidelines to adapt to the situation.

Additionally, TNA claims suction dredging has resulted in erosion of the shoreline, degradation of marine life and shellfish harvest beds, and destruction of intertidal vegetation. It also states some gold panners and users of small sluices have complained suction dredging sends the tailings offshore, diminishing the resource.

Although the DEC permit prohibits dredging in vegetation and shellfish beds, most operators tend to avoid these locations as the organic materials can clog up pumps, hoses, and sluice boxes.

Any violation of compliance with this can be reported to DEC.

Katie Harms, executive director of DIPAC, said three species of salmon are released from the nearby DIPAC hatchery floats.

“We can have chum salmon fry in there as early as late January,” she said. “We also release king and coho from that area. It’s a rearing location so we keep fish at the location as they imprint and memorize that spot as where they should return to when they’re adults.”

Salmon are released as late as June 21. Adult salmon return to the same location beginning in June through late October for sport fishing interests.

“Chinook and coho salmon are pretty impactful for the Juneau residents and people that come up to Alaska to fish for salmon,” Harms said. “Then the chum salmon provide sport fishing opportunity as well as it’s a part of our cost recovery program and common property fishing for the gillnet fleet just south of that area.”

Harms said she doesn’t notice a decline in salmon return that’s specific to the Sheep Creek area.

“Salmon returns are up and down every year,” she said.

Several fishermen near Sheep Creek told the Empire they were completely unaware of the suction dredging taking place on the northwest part of the beach and it doesn’t impact their day.

Juneau resident Kevin Miller said the noise was a disturbance and influenced him to fish closer to the creek instead of where the dredging takes place.

“I come out to fish to be in nature,” he said.

It’s illegal for any miner to be within 500 feet of Sheep Creek, according to DNR.

There was a gold mining “boom” after Juneau resident Ray Rusaw posted YouTube videos showcasing the gold from the Gastineau tailings. Rusaw said he began his videos for his son serving in Iraq many years ago.

“As it stands right now, that is the only open recreational gold dredging beach, and it’s just a small area,” he said. “It’s really not hurting any of the salmon habitat. And I would truly hate to see this community lose one more form of recreation. If they shut down that gold beach, we’ll probably never ever have another one, because the rest of them are mine claims and the people who own those claims are never gonna give them claims up.”

Rusaw said realistically, it’s difficult to “get that gold because the gold is actually very, very fine —100 to 300 mesh gold.”

Rusaw said because of that, many people don’t stick it out.

“It’s a lot of work,” he said. “By the time you fill up your car, you fill up everything, lug up your equipment, work all day and clean your mats, go home and attend the gold — it’s an eight-to-10-hour day, all for just a few grams of gold. It’s a whole lot of work for not much. When you get the gold fever, and you actually really have the gold fever, it’s worth every penny, it’s worth every gram.”

His videos drew attention to the area and from 2019 to 2020 a homeless encampment was set up near the beach, with some people there taking up mining themselves. It took coordination from multiple agencies and almost two years to clean up the trash and debris.

“The main concern of the Thane Neighborhood Association is not about gold dredging on the tailings per se, but that unmonitored suction dredging will result in another free-for-all debacle resulting in shoreline and delta damage outside of the tailings sand area and the littering of large and heavy junked equipment and debris,” Chris Prussing, vice president of TNA, said. “If you’ve been left holding the bag and forced to do the cleanup, the glamor of gold loses a lot of its appeal.”

She said the enforcement of regulations has been an ongoing concern since suction dredging began in the area around ten years ago, but in the last two years, TNA noticed a noticeable increase in activity. Prussing said the current situation does not compare to 2019-2020, but “people haven’t forgotten” and are wary about DNR’s ability to enforce their rules and regulations.

“TNA has spent the past 20 years working with all concerned agencies to get the tidelands revegetated and rehabilitated with an eye toward a local recreational fishery resource, including crab and shellfish,” she said.

Three miners from Nome saw Rusaw’s YouTube videos and decided to come to Juneau. One of those miners was Ernest Hart who said he’s been suction dredging every day for the last eight months. It’s physically grueling, but he said that’s why he loves it.

Hart said the beach has become an escape for him. He said he’s been “a treasure hunter his whole life” and originally started his hobby with metal detection.

“This is where I get my exercise,” he said. “I get away from everybody. I decompress and find my peace. This town was built on mining. I’m not hurting anybody. We’ve got a right to be here until DNR says otherwise.”

In Nome, Hart could find 36 ounces a day — in Juneau, he finds about four grams. The gold from the Gastineau tailings is 74% pure.

Paul Ingalls came to Juneau from Florida to mine in May after retiring from the military. He said he owns a sapphire mine in Montana, but gold is fun “because you can hold onto it.” He said there’s excitement in making a lot of money in one day and he’s “got the gold bug.” On a good day, he walks away with $1,000.

He said Hart and he may spend all day on the beach, but their motors aren’t running all the time.

The GAU regulation allows for pumping 30,000 gallons of water a day with an 18-horsepower engine. One can achieve 30,000 gallons of water pumped within 30 minutes operating an 18-horsepower engine. Ingalls and Hart said they likely run about four to five hours a day.

“You’re only allowed 30,000 gallons,” Hart said. “So what I do is I run for five to 10 minutes. Shut it down, clean my box, run for another five to 10 minutes. Shut it down, clean my box. So I’m not just hammering through 30,000 gallons. There’s a carpet system inside of there and that fine gold gets caught up in that carpet.”

Ingalls said it takes an hour to an hour and a half just to clean out the carpet.

Nearly all the sand was washed back westward by tides and storms depositing onto the northwest shoreline over a period of years. Hart and Ingalls opposed the idea that erosion of vegetation and creek beds is caused by mining and said heavy floods and rainfall cause the erosion.

“You gotta have a 17-, 18-, 19-foot tide to be able to get in there (the vegetation), and that would be in the winter,” Hart said. “That would be pretty miserable.”

He said miners stay below the median high tide to avoid causing erosion.

Prussing said the mining is exacerbating the erosion done by weather events.

Hart and Ingalls added their suction dredges aren’t causing the holes that TNA says are impacting enjoyment of the beach — those are punched by hydro forces.

“I’m just taking stuff off the surface,” Hart said. “Even with the hydros, the tides and currents wash the stained water and sulfide out and fill in the holes with sand.”

Both Hart and Ingalls said they have all their permits to operate — a DEC permit discharge, a DNR permit, and a land use mooring permit. They noted it may be true not all miners are following regulations, and they believe DNR should provide better enforcement.

Jolene Julian is a Douglas resident who enjoys the beach at Sheep Creek. Her niece swam near where Hart was mining and soaked in the deep holes left behind by hydro forces on July 20.

“I love it,” Julian said. “These are people who have a dream and they have a passion for it. These people are independent. And it’s not an eyesore. It’s individuals who are working really hard. The physical work that they put into this is incredible. We are right below a historical gold mine. Why not pick up the remnants?”

Jake Springston has been a Thane resident for the past seven years. He said he walks his 6-month-old puppy Blue every evening at Sheep Creek.

“This is the reason why we’re here in Alaska to begin with,” he said while watching his dog dig in the deep quicksand. “I think it’s kind of fun.”

TNA requested DNR post a restriction to allow only gold panning and manual sluicing on the Sheep Creek Delta and that suction dredging be discontinued due to ongoing difficulty in enforcing the strictures of DNR’s “Generally Allowed Uses.”

Additionally, TNA requested permitting suction dredge float structures in the area be discontinued and that only portable field equipment be allowed to be packed in and removed daily.

TNA requested tide-proof markers be installed delimiting the tailings sand area open to gold panning, and that intertidal vegetated and marine life areas of the Sheep Creek tidelands delta be off limits.

TNA has coordinated with DNR in the past regarding signage and would continue this coordination in the design, placement, permitting and payment for such markers.

If DNR decides not to eliminate suction dredging on the Sheep Creek tidelands as a GAU area, TNA requested the permitting system for tidelands moorage of dredge floats “be rigorously monitored and promptly enforced, with all applicable fees and bondage requirements assessed, that public notice of any permit application be shared with the Thane Neighborhood Association, and that if there is reasonable public opposition to any particular permit application such an application not be approved.”

“The special use argument carries some weight since recreational mining is likely occurring at a scale and duration beyond what the mineral closing order intended to limit,” Joe Byrnes, the department’s legislative liaison wrote in an email. “However, the Statewide Abatement of Impaired Lands Section is not aware of any scientific research for this site that documents whether or not the recreation mining is causing contamination or/and ecological harm. The contamination history at the site, and the Gastineau Channel in general, could be used as contributing justification for a special use area designation. Water quality sampling work could be conducted to further evaluate potential impacts at the site.”

• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356.