Santa Barbara County planning officials have been conducting an unrelenting regulatory crusade against the Antolinis for years, and the Antolinis aren't confident it will end until they are forced to close their mine. You never know what they're going to hit you with next. Paul anticipated difficulty. The Antolinis' problems began in earnest when the land became theirs. For decades they had worked it as Forest Service land, under Forest Service regulations.
Hank remembers the regulatory management as calm and commonsensical.
He had no problem with the Forest Service, and the Forest Service had no problems with him. But when the Forest Service's attitude toward extraction industries began to harden in the 1980s, the Antolinis decided to file a patent claim under the 1872 Mining Act. That law shifts ownership of land from the government to citizens who discover and work a valuable resource. Even after a judge finally decided in the family's favor, it took Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt a year just to sign the necessary paperwork . When ownership finally passed to Hank, the regulatory responsibility passed to Santa Barbara County.