47-1324. ENFORCEMENT AND PENALTIES FOR VIOLATION. (a) The board may maintain an action in the name of the state of Idaho to enjoin any person from operating or maintaining a placer or dredge mining operation without holding a valid permit or bond as provided in this act or regulations promulgated thereto. The court, or a judge thereof at chambers, if satisfied from a complaint or by affidavits that the alleged acts have been or are being committed, may issue a temporary restraining order, without notice or bond, enjoining the defendant, his agents and employees, from operating or maintaining such placer or dredge mining operation without obtaining a permit and bond as provided in this act or regulations promulgated thereto. No showing of injury shall be required other than that this act is being violated by the operation or maintenance of a placer or dredge mining operation without the approved permit and bond. Upon a showing of good cause therefor, the court may require the defendant to undertake mitigation or restoration of the disturbed area in conformity with section 47-1314, Idaho Code, pending final disposition of the action. The action shall proceed as in other cases for injunctions. If at the trial the operation and maintenance of a placer or dredge mining operation without a permit or bond be established, and the court further finds that it is probable that the defendant will continue therein or in similar violations, the court shall enter a decree perpetually enjoining said defendant, his agents and employees from thereafter committing said or similar actions in violation of this act.

(b) The board may maintain an action in the name of the state of Idaho to enjoin any person from operating or maintaining a placer or dredge mining operation when, under an existing approved permit and bond, a permittee violates or exceeds the terms of the permit or violates a provision of this act, and the bond, if forfeited, would not be sufficient to adequately restore the land.

(c) In addition to the injunctive provisions above, the board may maintain a civil action against any person who violates any provision of this act to collect civil damages in an amount sufficient to pay for all the damages to the state caused by such violation, including but not limited to, costs of restoration in accordance with section 47-1314, Idaho Code, where a person is conducting placer or dredge mining without an approved permit or bond.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this act, any person who violates any of the provisions of this act or regulations promulgated thereto, or who violates any determination or order promulgated pursuant to the provisions of this act, shall be liable for a civil penalty of not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) for each day during which such violation continues. Such penalty shall be recoverable in an action brought in the name of the state of Idaho by the attorney general. All sums recovered shall be placed in the state treasury and credited to the dredge and placer mining account, to be administered by the board for the restoration of lands and watercourses damaged by placer or dredge mining operations.

(e) No administrative action or decision by the director or board shall be required prior to enforcement of any of the above remedies, provided that no permit shall be terminated and no bond shall be forfeited without administrative action as provided under sections 47-1318 and 47-1319, Idaho Code. No administrative action or decision by the Idaho board of health and welfare shall be required prior to enforcement of any of the above remedies by the state of Idaho against any person violating section 47-1315, Idaho Code.

(f) Any person who wilfully or knowingly falsifies any records, plans, specifications, or other information required by the board or wilfully fails, neglects, or refuses to comply with any provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than one thousand dollars ($1,000) and not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) or imprisonment not to exceed one (1) year, or both.

(g) All civil actions provided for in this section shall be filed in the district court of this state for the county wherein the violation, or some part thereof, occurs, or in the district court for the county wherein the defendant resides or has a principal place of business, or in the district court for the county of Ada if the defendant resides out-of-state, or in the appropriate court of the United States where the rules and statutes governing such courts permit.

History:

[47-1324, added 1971, ch. 208, sec. 1, p. 917; am. 1984, ch. 102, sec. 8, p. 239; am. 1988, ch. 72, sec. 3, p. 104.]