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Rogue Riverkeeper sues S. Oregon gold miner

The Columbian
Published: February 15, 2011, 12:00am

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Since the construction industry went belly up and gold prices skyrocketed, Donald Bean went back to his family’s gold mining claims in southern Oregon to make his living.

But a conservation group has filed a federal lawsuit to stop him, claiming he is ruining habitat for threatened coho salmon.

Leslie Adams of Rogue Riverkeeper says Bean’s Reelfoot mining operation on Sucker Creek — a tributary of the Illinois River near the Oregon Caves National Monument — has failed to get state and federal permits for pushing gravel into the creek and dirty water from his mining is getting into the creek.

Bean says he is in full compliance with U.S. Bureau of Land Management rules for the mine, and he is not discharging any water into the creek.

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