APPENDIX B.

Table showing applications to mine by the hydraulic process.

[Received by the California Débris Commission.]

Table showing applications to mine by the hydraulic process-Continued.

No.

13 Craycroft Hill Sierra placer mining

14

15 Spanish Ranch

16 Polar Star Placer Placer Mine.

APPENDIX C.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS.

In the circuit court of the United States in and for the ninth circuit, northern district of California, Hon. Wm. B. Gilbert, judge.

UNITED STATES, COMPLAINANT,

Ꭶ.

THE NORTH BLOOMFIELD GRAVEL MINING COMPANY, DEFENDANT.

No. 7865.

WEDNESDAY, October 5, 1892.

GILBERT, J. This is a suit for an injunction brought by the United States as complainant against the defendant corporation. The essential averments of the bill are that the mining company is engaged in hydraulic mining in Nevada County and dumping its débris and tailings in such a way that the same flow into the South Yuba River, a tributary of the main Yuba River; thence into the main Yuba River; thence into the Feather River, and thence into the Sacramento. That the Yuba River is navigable from Marysville to its mouth, and Feather River is navigable from the mouth of the Yuba to the Sacramento, and that the Sacramento is navigable from its mouth to the mouth of the Feather. That heretofore extensive hydraulic mining had been carried on upon the western watershed of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which had done great injury to the navigable streams referred to, and that the hydraulic mining, as conducted by the defendant, had done great injury to said navigable streams, and the continuation of it will further materially contribute to the injury complained of.

The answer of the defendant denies that it was dumping débris or tailings from its mining operations so that the same flowed into the said rivers; but it alleges that it has erected extensive impounding works by means of which it impounded upon its own lands and within its own mines all material likely to injure the navigation of said streams, and that it would continue to impound such mining material so long as it should continue its mining operations, and that the same would remain permanently impounded and restrained in such a manner as not to injure the navigation of such streams. A large amount of testimony was taken on behalf of the respective parties, and the case is now to be decided upon final hearing.

It remains to be considered whether, under the allegations of the bill and the evidence introduced on behalf of the respective parties, an injunction should issue as prayed for.

The operations of the mine of this defendant corporation was enjoined by a decree of this court in 1884, in the suit of Woodruff vs. North Bloomfield Mining Company, and that injunction still remains in force. In the decree an intimation was made that if in the future the defendant corporation should show to the court that it had constructed impounding reservoirs which would successfully impound its mining débris the decree might be modified so as to permit the operation of the minc. The defendant, since that decree and before the commencement of this suit, had established and was using the system of impounding works referred to in its answer to the bill. The question of fact now to be determined is whether or not, with the use and operation of the impounding works, mining débris escapes from the defendant's mine into the navigable waters of the Yuba, the Feather, or the Sacramento so as to tend to impair or injure the navigability of those streams. It becomes necessary, therefore, to carefully consider the construction and operation of the impounding device. At the time of the injunction in 1884 the North Bloomfield Mining Company, by the use of its monitors and its system of placer mining, had made an excavation on its grounds which was in length nearly a mile, in width from 500 to 1,000 feet, in depth varying from 150 to 400 feet.

There was no considerable stream of water running through this excavation, and there was no natural outlet to the same. The tailings and débris from the mine had been discharged through a shaft which was sunk through solid rock near the center of the excavation. This shaft was 80 feet in the perpendicular and connected with a tunnel cut also through the solid rock, a distance of nearly half a mile, and opening into Humboldt canyon, which lies considerably below the level of the excavation. The total cost of the tunnel and shaft was in the neighborhood of $500,000. The impounding works were constructed by utilizing the excavation, the shaft, and the tunnel. The impounding area is divided by a dam into two impounding basins, each of about 20 acres in extent, which may be called the old and the new basins. The surface of the old basin lies at an altitude of about 100 feet above that of tho new. The mining operations are all carried on at the upper end of the excavation. The mining is done upon two levels or benches, one at an elevation of about 100 feet above the other. The débris from the upper mining level is carried on that level to

the old impounding basin. The débris from the lower mining level is intended to be impounded in the new basin. Near the lower end of the old basin an inclined shaft has been sunk to connect with the tunnel, and its use is to allow the escape of water after all material likely to injure navigation shall have been deposited in the basin. A similar outlet is made in the new impounding basin, and both these outlets are cribbed up from the bottom, so that a thin sheet of water from the surface only can escape. The operation of the old reservoir has been tested and a considerable amount of débris has been deposited within it.

The dam which separates the basins is constructed across the excavation and prevents the débris from running back from the old basin into the new basin and the lower levels of the mine. The operation of impounding has been conducted in the following manner: The débris from the mining on the upper bench, consisting of gravel, sand, and comminuted clay, together with sufficient water to carry the same, has been conducted by a sluice, with a tolerably swift current, down to the upper edge of the old impounding reservoir, and there discharged into the pond or lake. It has been found that the heavy material is deposited first, the lighter sand and gravel are carried somewhat farther, and when the current strikes the body of water in the pond nearly all the remaining material carried by the water is deposited, forming a bench across the upper end of the depositing pool, which presents an almost perpendicular wall from the surface to the bottom. The water on striking the pool is diffused through it and its current apparently ceases. It has the effect to raise the water in the pool and to cause a constant outpour from its surface over the edges of the lower crib.

There are three objections urged against the operation of this impounding reservoir: First, that it does not successfully remove from the water the material which is carried in suspension, and that the water which escapes by the cribs takes with it material which becomes deposited in the lower streams and injuriously affects the navigability of the same. Second, that the dam across the excavation is not of durable material and is liable to break. Third, that the cribs are liable to break or decay, and the impounding material may thus escape into the streams below.

It

Upon the first of these objections the evidence, although voluminous, is not to any considerable extent conflicting. The water that escapes through the cribs is discolored with very fine particles of comminuted clay which are held in suspense. is impossible that water that has once fairly come to rest in the pool and has then been drawn off from the surface through the cribs should carry with it any sand or anything other than the lightest material. The evidence goes to prove that the fine clay held in suspense in the water, and which causes its discoloration, is of specific gravity very little greater than water, and that it will remain in suspense so long as the water moves with the velocity of a mile in two hours.

It

The evidence further shows that this material is carried in a state of suspense through the Yuba, the Feather, and the Sacramento rivers, and into the ocean. does not appear that at any point on those streams the water comes to rest or the clay which it carries is deposited in an appreciable quantity.

After taking into consideration all of the evidence, I am convinced that after the water which conducts the mining débris shall have once come to rest so as to deposit all the sand and heavier material that is carried in suspense, leaving only the light, floculent particles of clay, which give it its color, no material will be subsequently deposited from it unless it is brought to rest and so remains for a period longer than it has remained at rest in the impounding pool.

Second. Is there danger to be apprehended from insufficiency of the dam which separates the old from the new impounding basin? The dam is constructed of brush and small trees, carefully laid so that the butts form the outer wall. It is made by layers, as the pool fills up and as the deposited débris requires it. The interstices between the layers of brush are filled in with the gravel, ŝaud, and clay deposited from the flume. The dam as it now stands presents a wall nearly 100 feet high, which seems to be a compact, solid mass of gravel, sand, and clay, with the brush interwoven so as to hold in place. If there were great pressure upon this dam, if it were a dam across a torrential stream, if its breaking or carrying away would discharge into the stream below the débris that has accumulated, it would appear to be clearly insufficient for the purpose intended, but the evidence together with a personal inspection of the dam convinces me that there is no great pressure upon the dam. The heavy material deposited has not only accumulated about the dam but for a considerable distance below, and the mass appears to be now in the process of recementation and solidifying, which already, to a considerable extent, has restored it to the condition of the material in the surrounding hills. If this dam should break it is difficult to see where injury could result, for the impounded material, if it moved at all, could only escape into the new impounding reservoir. It is plain that there is no danger from winter torrents. The mine is not in the bed of a mountain stream. The amount of water which naturally falls into this excavation is small, and even in a winter torrent it must either all escape by the cribs or simply accumulate and form a lake within the walls of the excavation.

It remains to be considered whether there is danger to the navigability of the streams from the breaking, decaying, or destruction of cribs. The cribs are built of logs, about a foot in diameter, notched at the corners and laid in log-cabin style, lined within with heavy planks, tightly nailed, and covered on the outside with planks in a similar manner, so that the opening within the clear is about three or four feet square. It is claimed by the defendant that this material will not decay so long as it is kept moist by the surrounding mass. I do not think that contention is well established by the evidence. The cribs, in time, will decay, but they will last for many years, and they will doubtless considerably outlast the use of these pools for impounding reservoirs. After the pools shall have been filled up with mining débris, and these cribs shall no longer be the outlet of the water of the mine, I do not perceive any harm that can come from their decaying. By that time the impounded material must have become, to a large degree, compact and solidified, so that the caving in of any considerable portion of it need not be expected; and if it should cave in, it is plain to my mind that the result would be simply to choke up the shaft and permanently close the same. This view is supported by the history of the use of the shaft heretofore. It is proven that the sudden discharge into the shaft and tunnel of a greater amount of débris than the water could carry away has resulted in a choking up of the outlet, and that the mass of material and water above has simply served, by their pressure, to increase the difficulty of removing the material and reopening the shaft. In short, the danger to be apprehended from the operation of the North Bloomfield Mine, with its impounding reservoirs as constructed and used and intended to be used, is so remote and improbable that the court is not justified in enjoining the use of the property and thereby interdicting a valuable industry.

In arriving at this conclusion, I am not unmindful of the great damage to navigation that has heretofore resulted from the deposit of mining débris, nor of the important interests that are involved, but I am convinced that in the case of this particular mine the contingency has arisen which was contemplated in the decision of this court in the mining-débris cases, in providing that the decree might thereafter be modified upon a showing to the court that a plan to obviate the injuries had been successfully executed.

The injunction will be denied.

In the circuit court of the United States in and for the ninth circuit, northern district of California.

UNITED STATES,

18.

CHARLES H. LAWRENCE et al.

No. 10738.

WEDNESDAY, October 5, 1892.

GILBERT, J.: The bill filed by the complainant in this case is similar to the bill in the case of the United States vs. North Bloomfield Mining Company, and the defenses here made are substantially the same as those made in that suit.

It is claimed in the answer of the defendants that they have established a system of impounding works whereby all material liable to injure the navigability of the streams referred to in the bill is impounded and retained upon the premises and does not enter the navigable streams.

The mining débris from the defendant's mines escape through a shaft 90 feet deep sunk in the lower level of the mine; thence it is discharged into a tunnel 3,000 feet long, which empties into Canyon Creek. About a quarter of a mile below the exit of the tunnel a dam has been constructed across the channel of the creek. This dam is a crib dam composed of heavy fir logs pinned together at the corners and raised to the height of 28 or 30 feet. The interior of the crib is filled with stones. The dam has caused the water to set back to a considerable distance in the stream, creating a pond. Into the upper portion of this pool the mining débris is carried from the tunnel. During the time this restraining devise has been used, the mining débris has worked its way down toward the dam and filled up some portion of the reservoir. The exact proportion of the pool which yet remains to be filled is not definitely fixed by the testimony, but the evidence would indicate that there still remains an impounding pool extending back from the dam a distance of about 1,000 feet, in which no portion of the débris or material discharged appears visible above the surface of the water.

It appears also that the current of the water in the dam is sluggish, and during the operation of the mine and the discharge of débris into the pool there has been an appreciable current in the water, but the evidence does not show that any considerable amount of débris calculated to lodge in the streams below or to injure their