The Cemex mining dispute has finally crossed a major obstacle with a creative solution spearheaded by Congressman Steve Knight, Senator Dianne Feinstein and the City of Santa Clarita.

Caleb Lunetta and Chris McCrory contributed to this report.

Just hours after threatening a veto, President Donald Trump said Friday afternoon that he had signed the sweeping $1.3 trillion spending bill passed by Congress early Friday and averted a government shutdown.

On March 23, 2018, President Trump signed into law the FY18 Omnibus Appropriations bill that sets policy and allocates $1.3 billion in federal discretionary spending for the remainder of the fiscal year. During the negotiations process for this agreement, Representative Steve Knight (R-CA) led an effort along with Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to include language that would ultimately conclude the decades-long dispute over a proposed mineral mine in Soledad Canyon.

“This is a huge win for the Santa Clarita Valley and I’m very happy we were able to include this language which is now law,” said Knight “This has been a battle our community has been fighting for nearly twenty years, and we finally have a law on the books to address the issue.”

The bill signed into law includes language that would permanently remove mineral mining rights for the site and would prohibit any mining operations for any future contracts. Existing contracts remain under review by the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) and would not be impacted by this provision.

IBLA is expected to rule on CEMEX’s appeal this year. Regardless of their ruling, the language included in the Omnibus package would preclude any mining operations in Soledad Canyon upon conclusion or termination of existing contracts. Should IBLA rule to allow mining as a result of the appeal, this legislation would preclude future contracts and additional mining once these conclude. If they rule the current contracts are canceled, this issue is closed permanently.

It took 27 years for federal legislation to be signed that should lead to a final resolution of the controversy.

The pending resolution is a big win for Santa Clarita residents, according to Santa Clarita Mayor Laurene Weste.

Weste said the mine has been an ongoing negotiation between city and state representatives and CEMEX.

“I want to applaud and thank Senator Feinstein and Congressman Knight for working together on behalf of our community to include language in the Omnibus to limit mining in Soledad Canyon,” she said. “While the fight against large-scale mining in Soledad Canyon is not over yet, this is a significant step forward in preventing the mine.”

Weste was not the only member of the City Council that vocalized their support for the most recent developments in regard to CEMEX.

“Congressman Knight has consistently identified that working to end the threat of large scale mining in Soledad Canyon is his top federal priority in the district,” said City Councilman Bob Kellar “His efforts to fight of inclusion of meaningful language in the Omnibus is a significant step in delivering on his commitment to residents of the Santa Clarita Valley. This wouldn’t have been accomplished without Steve’s persistent work on this issue.”

Both Knight and Feinstein worked cooperatively together and with others in D.C. in order to impede CEMEX development.

History of the Cemex Controversy

Cemex, the multinational buildings material company headquartered in Mexico, has been the holder of the Santa Clarita mining rights to what would have been the largest mining project of aggregate, the material used for cement, in the United States.

In 1990, Federal government’s Bureau of Land Management issued the rights to mining on the east side of the Santa Clarita Valley. At the time, the population of the Santa Clarita Valley was 130,000 residents, only a fraction of today’s population of over 300,000. Back then, the east side of Canyon Country by Soledad Canyon seemed like a remote area and an ideal place to mine rocks for the purposes of creating cement for building and construction projects.

As the scope of the project became known, the potential impact of air quality and traffic would have been devastating to our valley. After the environmental reports were released in 1999 the City of Santa Clarita waged an all-out effort to quash the project.

Today, Santa Clarita is the third largest city in Los Angeles County, with homes, schools and businesses right next to the proposed mega-mine.

Included in the Omnibus bill that was just signed into law is language to finally address mining in Soledad Canyon. Read more here: https://t.co/LSeN7sPj1W pic.twitter.com/nV3g8qX0ZT

— Steve Knight (@SteveKnight25) March 23, 2018

For the twenty-eight years since the mining rights were granted, the City of Santa Clarita has disputed the federally-approved, large-scale mining project in the Canyon Country area of Soledad Canyon. And although the City of Santa Clarita has been the property owner for the proposed mining site for several decades, the mineral rights, owned by the Bureau of Land Management, have been granted to the international Cemex Corporation.

Over the years of the dispute, the City and Cemex have at times been in a vicious and expensive legal battle with each other and at times have agreed to work together to provide alternative solutions.

In this latest solution, it took the powers of our Congressman Steve Knight, Senator Dianne Feinstein and the political maneuvering and compromises of the leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Through extraordinary efforts to work through a compromise with the “big four”; Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Minority Leader of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a clause was added to the appropriations bill paving the way for signing by President Donald Trump today.

“This has been a long time coming,” said Rep. Knight “From my time in the State legislature until now, this has been our number one local priority in the Santa Clarita Valley. I want to thank Speaker Ryan and Leader McCarthy for working with us on this issue.”

Knight’s persistence in finding a legislative solution was instrumental to this key step in finally solving the mining controversy.

The bill is a major step toward ending any future mining in Santa Clarita.

KHTS has run a comprehensive series of articles over the years outlining the ups and downs of the Cemex dispute. To view the entire history concerning the CEMEX narrative, visit KHTS’s archives here.

Did you spot a correction? Let us know by emailing Corrections@hometownstation.com

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