Home » Santa Clarita News » Editorials » Editorial: The End Of Cemex – The Real Story Behind This David Vs. Goliath Battle
Cemex officials were “disappointed” Wednesday by a letter sent from the Bureau of Land Management questioning their ability to mine on Soledad Canyon.
Santa Clarita City Council is considering support for legislation that could slow the effort to put a massive mine on the east side of Santa Clarita Valley

Editorial: The End Of Cemex – The Real Story Behind This David Vs. Goliath Battle

Editorial by Carl Goldman. 

Friday’s announcement, “Cemex is dead in Santa Clarita” is the biggest story in the history of our valley other than the original formation of our city in 1987.


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In 1990, the Federal Government’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) granted mining rights to allow one of the largest mega mines in our country. It was right in our backyard, on the east side of our valley, just past Shadow Pines and Stone Crest in Canyon Country. The additional dust, traffic from dump trucks and devaluation of property values would have been devastating.

Since then our city has led the fight to stop the mine. They spent an incredible amount of time, energy and resources to benefit us, quite often taking a lot of heat for their efforts.

Now that the dust (pun intended) has settled, it’s a shame to see who is taking the credit for winning the good battle. It is also frustrating to still see some residents not appreciating what our city actually accomplished. They still don’t get the potential domino effect Cemex would have had on our quality of life.

We’d like to set the record straight and share who our real heroes are in winning this battle. Mayor Pro-tem Bob Kellar and City Councilwoman, Laurene Weste put in thousands of hours with trips to Washington D.C., meetings, and protests. They walked the walk and talked the talk and always by their side was an unsung hero in this David vs. Goliath battle, City Government Affairs Director, Mike Murphy.

Many other city staff put themselves on the line, including current City Manager, Ken Striplin and his predecessor Ken Pulskamp. Gail Morgan, the city’s communications manager led a masterful, creative media and marketing campaign navigating through many challenging political obstacles.

The battle never would have been won without the continuous effort, diligence and perseverance of California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. Boxer and her staff were there from the beginning, giving her support, encouragement and political clout. Our current Congressman Steve Knight, took up the torch as a strong supporter during his current term.  Assemblyman Scott Wilk assisted from the state level.

Our neighbors in Agua Dulce and Acton, led by community activist Andy Fried were also by our side throughout the fight. These are just a few of the heroes who believed in their hearts, despite the odds, despite the criticism and the political heat, stood behind their convictions, took their lumps and picked themselves back up to continue to lead the charge. Many others should be mentioned when the accurate history of the Cemex fight is written.

What is shameful are some of our politicians and community leaders who are now taking credit even with press releases. Hypocrisy has no shame.

Many Santa Clarita community leaders opposed the city’s efforts. Often they would tell me it’s a lost cause, we should take the money and stop spending our taxpayer dollars on a battle that couldn’t be won.

Toward the end, our former Congressman Buck McKeon, finally came through and after 22 years introduced legislation allowing a swap of land for Cemex, only to have one lone junior U.S. Senator, Martin Heinrich (Democrat/ New Mexico) stand in the way from ending the fight.

Related Story: Cemex Mine Shut Down In Santa Clarita By Bureau Of Land Management Once And For All

It’s ironic because the stubbornness of Senator Heinrich probably caused Senator Feinstein to push U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to make her Bureau of Land Management revoke the mining rights to Cemex.

Also, on the sidelines was our controversial environmental group SCOPE. It would have been nice to see SCOPE devote a fraction of their resources to assisting the Cemex fight instead of their lawsuits against Newhall Land. In the past, SCOPE was one of many groups who aggressively assisted the city in their other David versus Goliath battle, permanently stopping the landfill at Elsmere Canyon, also on the east side of our valley back in the early 90’s. It was another fight the city masterfully navigated along with the assistance of our Congressman Buck McKeon and Senator Barbara Boxer after also being told it couldn’t be stopped.

So our city didn’t just overcome Goliath in one said-it-couldn’t-be-done battle (Elsmere). It now has a second one checked off with Cemex heading out of town and into the sunset. We are all winners today because our city just wouldn’t give up. Someday, someone will write a book about the battle. But until then, we want to make sure a trail is laid out so the heroes of this battle receive the proper credit and continue to serve us should we ever need to face Goliath a third time.

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.

KHTS AM 1220 - Santa Clarita Radio

Editorial: The End Of Cemex – The Real Story Behind This David Vs. Goliath Battle

2 comments

  1. Again, someone needs to check the record before they claim that SCOPE was on the sidelines in spite of the many comments letters written in the administrative process. They were the ONLY group that protested CEMEX’s and Transit Mix applications to appropriate water. They are on the opposition list and showed up at the County hearings. This is what they do. Just wondering what else you wanted them to do? I can only surmise that someone is upset with the fact that Newhall Ranch is at the Supreme Court tomorrow. So let’s try to smear this local group that is fighting that.. Right? And what has the City done about Newhall Ranch with all its severe impacts? Just written support letters. Good thing someone is focusing on that project. Our City is certainly not protecting us there.

  2. Carl, there’s one key point you miss on the “Battle Against Cemex”, probably because you are just an unsophisticated radio station owner. The real battle against Cemex began in 2002 when the City of Santa Clarita spent a fortune on consultants writing scientific “comments” opposing the the County issuing land use permits for Cemex. As soon as the County denied those permits, Cemex sued the County. The City intervened in the lawsuit, and the City’s efforts were run by its law firm Burke Williams & Sorensen. The lawyer running the case was Deborah Prosser, an excellent lawyer much admired by, at least, the ladies on the Council.

    The last thing in the world any sane lawyer, including Ms. Prosser, wants is someone mucking around in their lawsuit. SCOPE stayed out. The Acton/Agua Dulce activists stayed out. Other property owners stayed out, all because no one wanted to work at cross purposes with the City’s litigation.

    Sadly, the case ended up before a fat headed Federal judge who made short shrift of the City’s claims. The Federal judge even said that the County couldn’t apply California Environmental Quality Act conditions to the the land use permits the judge ordered the County to issue to Cemex. The City appealed and lost.

    Given the great legal work by Burke Williams & Sorensen, you are just an illiterate buffoon to suggest that SCOPE or anyone else should have mucked around in that lawsuit. I guarantee you it wouldn’t have helped. The judge was and is a well known jerk and more complaining parties would have just set him off and made the court

    As to the post-lawsuit work by the City, they had their law firm, their in house lobbying manager you mention, plus lobbyists in Washington. When one is running a political operation, the last thing in the world a lobbyist or their client want is some stranger sitting in on strategy sessions, or working at cross purposes. Again, SCOPE stayed out, the Sierra Club stayed out, and every other potential environmental lobbying group stayed out because the City did not want them in on the decision making and strategic decision making, justifiably so. Again Carl, your comments are idiotic. You should have shut up after you gave credit to all who WERE involved.

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