This is the story of Joseph Hardesty, who runs a multi-million mining business near Sacramento while violating a dozen California and Federal environmental laws. The “Green” section of the Huffington Post ran a short article about Hardesty today, after he turned himself in for arrest on multiple felony counts of water pollution and other environmental crimes at the “Big Cut” mine.
I investigated Hardesty myself for several years and was unable to find that he ever complied with any environmental law. Air or water pollution permit? Nope. County mining permit or state environmental review? Not for Hardesty. Mining plan or reclamation plan? Sorry. Permits for filling Wetlands and creeks, destruction of a river levee, operating heavy equipment in a river during salmon spawning season, removal of state/federal owned materials, diversion of river water, storage of toxic wastes? To Hardesty, all those requirements violated his constitutional rights.
Yet Hardesty operated illegally for decades, successfully stiff-arming a panorama of State, local and federal agencies. His answers to government inquiries would frequently include “ALL CAPS” responses with copious quotations from Tom Paine and the Founding Fathers, and attached portions from the US Constitution. Essentially, environmental laws violated his constitutional right to mine and he wouldn’t stand for it.
Since he didn’t have to pay for any environmental compliance measures, Hardesty vastly undercut his competitors’ prices. His gravel business boomed while he raked in profits from the lucrative building materials market in the Sacramento area. Several of his competitors closed their doors, unable to match Hardesty’s compliance-free gravel prices.
Hardesty’s first mine was on the 4000 acre Schneider ranch that was nestled against the fecund Consumes River banks. The Consumes twists and surges in a narrow braid, carrying icy water that pours down from the Sierra Nevada Mountains snowmelt, and cuts through the Sacramento plains. Several salmon runs and other fishes cavorted in the Consumes’ cold water fishery from time immemorial.
Hardesty mined right next to the River, in ancient channels that were clogged with high grade gravel. He excavated massive open pits with heavy equipment, then crushed the river rock to the desired sizes. But his pit chewed away at the adjacent River levee, and when he mined below the River level, the Consumes began to flow through underground seeps into the pit itself.
But for the grace of God, a meaningful flood in the Consumes would have washed away the weakened levee and taken over the entire pit, and hopefully would not have flooded the neighborhoods and schools downstream.
Just flooding the pit would have ruined the Consumes as a cold-water fishery, because invasive warm-water species like bullfrogs and stocked fish would have occupied the backwater in the pit.
Hardesty was supposed to have an air pollution permit to crush rock, because it generated dust and diesel fumes. He was supposed to have a water pollution permit for storage of his muddy water used to wash the gravel. He wasn’t supposed to mine in the River levee. Sometimes he mined in the River itself, another violation. He filled in streams and wetlands without permits. He was supposed to have a mining permit, a valid reclamation plan, and an updated reclamation bond. He wasn’t supposed to storage toxic materials on site. He had none of these, yet he operated for 20 years.
I was one of the folks who went to several agencies and provided aerial photographs and lengthy written complaints against Hardesty. Then some of the agencies timidly attempted to inspect his operation. They found their path blocked with bulldozers and ornery characters flashing guns.
Finally the Army Corps came back with a search warrant and the sheriff, found wetlands violations, and issued cease and desist orders. The Air Pollution District came with their own search warrant, and discovered supposedly shut-down diesel engines that were still warm to the touch. The Levee District, Fish & Game, and others waded in with their own enforcement actions and cease-and-desist orders, and the County filed a 15-count criminal complaint for toxic waste violations.
That was years ago. Hardesty simply appealed everything, and kept selling the daylights out of his cheap, compliance-free gravel. But Hardesty became irritated and went on the offensive, suing several public officials and members of the State Mining Board as individuals.
Former governor Terminator had appointed several mining operators to the State Mining Board, so it’s pretty mining-friendly. But after Hardesty sued the Board staff, who in reality were not doing much to Hardesty, the Board became more active.
They went after another one of Hardesty’s rogue mines, the Big Cut, where Hardesty mined gravel and gold from an old river channel. The Mining Board issued orders requiring Hardesty to provide a legitimate mining and reclamation plan with an adequate bond. Hardesty scoffed, which had worked before.
But this time the Mining Board began assessing a $15,000/day fine against Hardesty, and the meter had run up to $900,000 by today. Finally the County charged Hardesty with felony water pollution, since mud from his Big Cut mine was flowing off of his property and was degrading surface waters.
Hardesty was a fugitive for 24 hours, but turned himself in today. Only one of his two mines, Big Cut, is likely affected by the felony charges. The Schneider mine will probably open Monday morning and sell compliance-free gravel, ignoring a passel of cease-and-desist orders, just as it has done for years.