A letter of complaint received by the Yukon Water Board has been turned over to the RCMP for investigation.

The letter was written by Mike Laforet, who occasionally acts as an agent for "older miners,” assisting in their applications to the water board and YESAB.

In his letter, Laforet accuses the water board of "declaring war” on the placer mining industry and warns board members "if you notice strangers taking photos of your staff, that will be us. Once your anonymity has vanished, so will these excesses.”

The letter was written in response to a rejected water use application made by Laforet.

The application was drafted on behalf of Dietmar Gritzka, who operates a claim at Hunker Creek during the summer months. On Dec. 21, the board responded to Gritzka's and Laforet's application with a five-page initial review.

The review identified a list of details missing from the application, including a failure to identify an appropriate fuel spill contingency plan and the type of absorbent pads the operation would use to clean up spills.

"This is an old guy in his 70s,” Laforet told the Star this morning. "He's been working up there all his life and and now he goes up in the summertime to rework old tailings to see if there is any gold left in them. Still, the board has 1,000 questions for a man who wants to work old tailings,” he said. "We are dying a death by a thousand paper cuts.”

Tired of dealing with what he calls "piles of bureaucratic make-work documents,” Laforet drafted his own letter, which the board forwarded to the RCMP on Friday.

Laforet maintains his letter was intended as a warning that placer miners would take a more assertive role in addressing the water board in the future, not as a threat to the safety of employees.

"We are a bunch of old men,” he said. "When I said we would be out taking pictures, I meant so we could identify the workers at the water board and talk to them in the grocery store or at the post office.”

Laforet said he does not plan to go through with any acts of espionage.

"We've scrapped the plan anyway,” he said. "It's wintertime. People are wearing scarves and things; there is no use photographing them now.”

He believes he represents many others in the placer mining industry, fed up with what they see as a convoluted process of water board and YESAB application processes.

"Who cares what brand of napkins we are going to use to wipe up two ounces of spilled oil?” he said. "This is not about protecting the environment; it's to make work for some staffers at the water board and help them build their little empires. We are just trying to make a living and placer mining is a legitimate and honourable profession and it's being threatened.”

Water board officials have taken the alleged threats to their safety just as seriously.

"We've said, if we see anyone skulking around our office, we'll call the RCMP,” Neil Salvin, the board's acting manager, told the Star this morning.

The board also stands by its application process.

Salvin points out that in the last few months the board has streamlined applications, including the amalgamation of three government forms into one.

Salvin also denies Laforet's allegation that the board is intentionally burdening placer miners and said most miners "recognize the necessity of the process.”

He said the real issue is a simple case of two miners not understanding the process.

"His application was woefully inadequate,” said Salvin. "We basically said, ‘look, you missed all these things'.... Like anyone else, he can come down and have the process explained to him.”

One of their major concerns is Gritzka's emergency spill plan.

"We are not asking people to use a specific brand of pads, we can't do that,” said Salvin.

"We just wanted to see that he had a fuel spill plan and asked what pads he was planning to use to see if he had what was required to clean up a potential spill.”

Laforet believes there is a fundamental disconnect between placer miners and the government agencies that regulate them.

"These are kids who have never been on a claim,” he said. "They know nothing about mining and they are put in a position of power over something they don't know anything about. Often these are kids from Outside and they are killing the industry.”

Despite his frustration, he said he has been in contact with the RCMP and has no intention of stalking any members of the water board.

The RCMP have said that they will continue to investigate the alleged threat.

"Every complaint is taken on its own merit according to the circumstances,” said Sgt. Don Rogers, spokesperson for the Whitehorse RCMP. "We try to resolve things on an individual level and if criminal acts have been committed, we'll act accordingly.”