KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Editor’s Note: This is an editorial letter from KHTS AM 1220 Co-owner Carl Goldman to Senator Martin Heinrich about HR 5472, the Cemex Bill.
Original publish date: Dec. 14, 2014 at 11:34 a.m.
Dear Senator Martin Heinrich,
My wife and I own the only local radio station, KHTS-AM in our community of Santa Clarita. We serve 300,000 residents in suburban Los Angeles. We’ve been part of our Santa Clarita Valley since 1990. During those years I’ve held my Mom and year’s later my Step-Mom and Dad in my arms as they died in their home just a stone’s throw (no pun intended) away from where a proposed mega-mine had been approved by the Bureau of Land Management many years before. We raised our two boys here, in our home, also a short distance from the proposed mine.
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We are part of the leadership of Santa Clarita who have been navigating the very complex Cemex mega-mining issue for over fifteen years. We’ve sat in meetings with Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Barbara Boxer, our Congressman, Howard “Buck” McKeon, and our neighboring Congressman, Brad Sherman as well as Congressman Richard Norman “Doc” Hastings, the House Chair of Natural Resources, trying to brainstorm solutions to a complex challenge.
After years of meetings in D.C. conference rooms, a seven-year partnership and about $12 million in effort, the city of Santa Clarita’s hopes of stopping a 56 million-ton sand-and-gravel mine from opening next door are in jeopardy due to a New Mexico senator’s legislative hold, officials said Saturday. Photo courtesy of SCVnews.com
The issue really boils down to the granting of a mining license in an area that grew into a thriving community long before any mining began. Now, the impact on our Santa Clarita Valley will be devastating. We will have a 56,000,000 ton sand and gravel mine as part of our neighborhood and as the connecting gateway to the historic San Gabriel Mountains National Monument that President Obama recently designated.
We’ve had federal studies, three in-fact, that have shown the designated area contains significant ecological resources. Eliminating the proposed mine will protect our Santa Clara River and protect the critical wildlife east-west California state wide corridor that is only a few miles away from where it connects with our north-south wildlife corridor. You, Senator Martin Heinrich, as a leading environmental advocate can appreciate the significance of these studies.
Our City will donate the surface land where the mine is proposed to the Federal Government once the mining agreements disappear, allowing for a gateway into the new national San Gabriel Mountains monument. The benefit of receiving the gateway land into the national monument far exceeds the loss of land in San Bernardino
County.
Now, after all these years and tremendous efforts by many Santa Clarita residents and community leaders we have a consensus for a solution. Only one person stands in the way and that person seems to be you, Senator Martin Heinrich. Our City and residents are asking you to reconsider. We are asking for you to join your colleagues in support of the proposed solution.
Cemex, the contract holder, who stands to significantly profit from approval of the mine, is willing to walk away and is asking for your support. Our two Democrat Senators from our State
of California, Senator Barbara Boxer and Senator Dianne Feinstein have personally asked for your support, as well as your leader, Senator Harry Reid and our neighboring Democrat Congressman Brad Sherman. All are part of your same Democratic party and all have asked for your support. It appears ninety-nine of the one hundred Senators are all willing to give us
their support if this comes to a vote in the Senate tomorrow.
That only leaves you. I am having difficulty understanding why, if the two Senators from your own party, who are home to our State are personally asking for your support you are ignoring their pleas.
So Senator Martin Heinrich, the ball appears to be in your court. You, who have always run on a platform of environmental activism, may choose to let the lobbying of the Bureau of Land Management sway you to destroy a significant portion of our valley and create a permanent negative domino impact on the 300,000 residents of Santa Clarita Valley. You can be our Scrooge or you can become our Santa Claus and give us an early Christmas present by joining your ninety-nine other colleagues in support of this resolution tomorrow morning. The choice is yours but the impact is ours.
Carl Goldman, Co-Owner KHTS Radio
For more information, read N.M. Senator’s Hold Threatens Santa Clarita-Cemex Bill
Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.
Hello Carl. I went to the Senator’s FB page and this is what he posted;
“I understand and appreciate that years of effort have gone into the proposal to buyout a gravel mining contract outside of Santa Clarita, California. However, the Soledad Canyon Settlement Act uses the sale of 10,000 acres of public land as a budget offset to pay for the buyout, which is of great concern to me. Within the context of efforts across the West to sell off our shared lands to the highest bidder, this provision sets a dangerous precedent. If land sales can be used as a budget offset, our public lands will become Congress’ piggy bank. I am confident there is a reasonable path forward—one that eliminates the threat of gravel mining in this treasured area in California, without setting a dangerous precedent for future land-grab schemes.”
This is the issue that he has! Why is no one addressing this in their effort to sway his vote?
Hello Carl. I went to the Senator’s FB page and this is what he posted;
“I understand and appreciate that years of effort have gone into the proposal to buyout a gravel mining contract outside of Santa Clarita, California. However, the Soledad Canyon Settlement Act uses the sale of 10,000 acres of public land as a budget offset to pay for the buyout, which is of great concern to me. Within the context of efforts across the West to sell off our shared lands to the highest bidder, this provision sets a dangerous precedent. If land sales can be used as a budget offset, our public lands will become Congress’ piggy bank. I am confident there is a reasonable path forward—one that eliminates the threat of gravel mining in this treasured area in California, without setting a dangerous precedent for future land-grab schemes.”
This is the issue that he has! Why is no one addressing this in their effort to sway his vote?