Gold mining was one of the most important industries west of the Rocky Mountains and was the first major industrial-corporate industries in California. Without such industries California would probably not have become a state until much later than 1850.

Even today we reap the harvest of those early hydraulic mining operations. In the early years, debris lodged mainly in stream beds and small canyons where the mining operations were conducted. By 1862 torrential rains created flooding conditions which wreaked havoc on the surrounding farmsteads and countryside. Tailings (comprised of a conglomeration of mud, sand and gravel) were washed by swollen streams down into river areas turning the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys into an inland sea which reached almost 3,000 miles and up to 60 miles wide.

Transportation and business as well as farming were at a standstill. Thousands of head of livestock perished and a fourth of the state’s taxable wealth was destroyed.

Despite the major flooding hydraulic mining continued to dump their debris and it continued to wash down stream. By 1868, this debris, being discharged into major tributaries of the major navigable rivers (by tunnels and sluice ways), had raised the beds of the Feather and Yuba rivers where they meet at Marysville. The river beds were actually higher than the streets of the town. The bed of the American River where it meets the Sacramento was raised ten feet.

Maybe the cruelest paradox of all was that valley businesses owed their prosperity to the miners. They supplied the nails, the tin, tools and manufactured goods used by the miners. The farming community raised the wheat, the vegetables and meats and other foodstuffs consumed in the mining communities. Closing or curtailing the mines would bring financial ruin to many and a sharp economic downturn for the area.

The question arose of who had the right, if there was such a thing, to continue to ply their trade or business. Without the miners there would be no business. They had come first and felt their "rights" should be considered. The farmers, who came later, insisted their "rights" were being ignored. Without the farmers the miners would not be making as large a profit. And so the arguments went on. Questions raised involved who was to blame and who were they. Who held title to all that mud which was ruining the fields and orchards? Who could be held responsible? Whose mud was it really?

The first major action against the miners took place in Butte County in 1873. Egbert Judson and his associates brought vast amounts of water to a mining area which historically had been one of the finest. The round the clock operations moved tons of debris down Dry Creek and onto the farmlands below. The farmers took action and filed a suit against the Spring Valley mine asking $2,000 damages. More importantly they asked for an injunction which would force the company to cease operation. The very complicated case raged for many months. The farmers launched a concerted effort to put Judson and other miners out of business.

Judson, showing rare insight, bought up all the lands damaged by the mining debris. He then constructed levees some 10 to 12 feet high on the sides of Dry Creek. They extended from the foothills all the way to Butte Basin. There they built a settling basin enclosing a large tract with a double ring of levees. Before the company closed down operations in 1887 the company had purchased 21,000 acres of land for dumping and storing hydraulic mining debris.

Others, both farmers and miners, took note of the Butte County solution. Unfortunately the debris problems along the Yuba and Feather rivers were more complex and other solutions were needed.

Flooding continued to be a problem. While the flood of 1862 had been bad the flood of 1875 was even worse. Flooding created havoc again in 1876. People took up the battle. Many wanted to crush the hydraulic mining industry proposing that Congress condemn hydraulic mining and keeping new mines from opening.

With Congress and the California legislature busy with what they considered more important to the well being of the country and the state, the pleas of the farmers went unanswered. Even so enough pressure was being applied that mounting concern on the part of the miners, especially the large companies and their financial backers, led to the formation of the Hydraulic Miners Association in 1876. Their purpose was to defend the miners in all court actions. It is supposed that a suit representing the interest of the farmers filed by James Keyes in the Tenth District Court in Yuba City was the push that caused the formation of the association.