Lately, there has been a lot of talk,
and a lot of erroneous statements
made, about the Department of
Conservation’s lawsuit against El
Dorado County. Both the motives
and authority of Department of
Conservation Director Larry
Goldzband have been questioned.
While the case itself is
complicated, the reality of what
happened is really very simple.
Loring Brunius, owner of two
mines in El Dorado County,
refused to obtain reclamation plans
and financial assurances until he
was issued an administrative
penalty in 1995 by then-Director
Michael Byrne. Mr. Brunius
initially ignored the penalty until
the case was referred to the
attorney general’s office for
El Dorado County Lawsuit
Vol. 3 No. 2 April - June 1998
collection. Only then did Mr.
Brunius enter into a stipulated
judgment with the department and
agree to comply with SMARA. It
was unfortunate that the
department had to take this
action, but El Dorado County
refused to enforce its own mining
ordinance. Mr. Brunius then
failed to meet the terms of the
stipulated judgment that he, his
attorney, and the judge had
signed. The department then
issued a closure order for both of
Mr. Brunius’ operations as
provided in Public Resources
Code Section 2774.1(a).
The closure order, unanimously
supported by the State Mining
and Geology Board, appeared to
spur Mr. Brunius into action. He
hastily had “reclamation plans”
prepared, plans that fell far short
of meeting SMARA minimum
requirements. The El Dorado
County Planning Commission
approved these documents, in
spite of department and local
citizen testimony that they were
woefully inadequate. Upon appeal
to the board of supervisors, that
body, faced with the same
evidence of failure to meet
SMARA requirements, decided to
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El Dorado County Lawsuit
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The Qua