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Santa Clarita Cemex bill is in danger of not making it to the House floor for a vote, officials said
Santa Clarita Cemex bill is in danger of not making it to the House floor for a vote, officials said

McKeon Cemex Bill Might Not Make Floor Vote

A Cemex bill that would prevent a massive mine from moving to the Santa Clarita Valley is in danger of not making to the floor for a vote, officials said Wednesday.


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Congressman Howard Buck Mckeon, R-Santa Clarita, told Santa Clarita Councilman Bob Kellar on Wednesday his Cemex bill was authored too late to add to a legislative package of more 50 bills in the National Defense Authorization Act.

Congressman Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, re-introduced a bill to help stop a longterm sand and gravel mine just outside of th the eastern border of Santa Clarita.

Congressman Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, re-introduced a bill to help stop a longterm sand and gravel mine just outside of th the eastern border of Santa Clarita.

The NDAA is set to go to a vote Thursday, according to officials.

As chairman of the House Committee of origin for the bill, McKeon could add the language to the omnibus defense funding bill as a manager’s amendment, said Mike Murphy, the city’s intergovernmental relations officer.

A McKeon spokesman said Wednesday he was unaware of any plan to add the Cemex language to the NDAA. The official said McKeon found out about the legislative package this past week.

When Kellar discussed the possibility of adding language to the bill with McKeon on Wednesday night, he said McKeon told him the bill would have to have been scored months ago to be a part of the package.

McKeon told Kellar that Congressman-elect Steve Knight, who’s set to assume office in January, is the bill’s best shot, Kellar said.

Kellar said he was optimistic for the bill’s future, but his past congressional testimony indicated time is running out for the city’s fight.

“If we cannot bring closure to the issue during this session, Cemex has indicated that they will have no choice but to go forward and obtain the final permits leading to mining of the site,” Kellar said in front of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

“Many years of cooperation and trust will be lost,” he added, “and, more importantly, the community will be changed forever with the establishment of large-scale mining.”

Cemex has two 10-year contracts to mine sand and gravel from land near Agua Dulce Road east of the city’s borders in Soledad Canyon.

Some with knowledge close to the situation consider the bill the city’s last chance  to stop the Cemex mine, by compensating the international mining company with Victorville lands.

The bill’s passage as a standalone piece of legislation was extremely unlikely, Kellar said.

Kellar said Wednesday that as someone who’s been working on the situation for some time with Cemex, he was hopeful they would continue to be good partners.

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McKeon Cemex Bill Might Not Make Floor Vote

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About Perry Smith

Perry Smith is a print and broadcast journalist who has won several awards for his focused, hyperlocal community coverage in several different regions of the country. In addition to five years of experience covering the Santa Clarita Valley, Smith, a San Fernando Valley native, has worked in newspapers and news websites in Los Angeles, the Northwest, the Central Valley and the South, before coming to KHTS in 2012. To contact Smith, email him at Perry@hometownstation.com.