KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Update: Adds more information from the city of Santa Clarita news release.
After more than 15 years of working to prevent the Cemex USA mine from breaking ground in the Santa Clarita Valley, the mine has been officially shut out, city of Santa Clarita and Bureau of Land Management officials announced Friday.
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Bureau of Land Management officials hand-delivered a formal document to a representative of the CEMEX Corporation, terminating CEMEX’s two 10-year contracts to mine in Soledad Canyon, according to the city of Santa Clarita news release. The termination document cited non-performance by CEMEX.
The formal document, referred to as “a decision” by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), terminates CEMEX’s contracts which were issued in 2000 according to the Record of Decision (ROD), according to the news release. CEMEX is the third corporation to own the contracts; the two others were Southdown and Transit Mixed Concrete.
“Without question, this is the best news I have received relevant to the Cemex matter in well over 15 years,” said city of Santa Clarita Councilman Bob Kellar. “This is a huge victory for the entire Santa Clarita Valley. I absolutely could not be happier.”
Read The Bureau Of Land Management CEMEX Decision
The termination document was delivered Friday morning in a face to face meeting held in Sacramento between Cliff Kirkmeyer, Executive Vice President for CEMEX USA and Jim Kenna, State Director for the BLM, according to the release.
“Protecting our community is job one and the decision by the BLM is a monumental one for Santa Clarita. I am very appreciative of our partners including our U.S. Senators –Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein; and our Congressman Steve Knight, Congresswoman Judy Chu and Congressman Brad Sherman. Without their tenacity and commitment, we wouldn’t be here today. I have thoroughly enjoyed working alongside Mayor Pro Tem Bob Kellar who has remained steadfast with me,” said Councilmember Laurene Weste who is also a CEMEX City Council sub-committee member.
This termination of the two 10-year contracts ends the city of Santa Clarita’s 16-year dispute with the CEMEX Corporation, according to the release. The federally-issued contracts called for the mining of 56 million tons of sand and gravel from Soledad Canyon that would have added up to 1,164 truck trips a day to local roads and freeways, as well as causing air quality issues and potential negative impacts to fish, wildlife and plants in the area.
“I’m ecstatic about it. I couldn’t be happier. We went into this as a partner with the city of Santa Clarita and told them from the very beginning that we would do anything to accomplish the goal,” said Representative Steve Knight. “We started to talk to BLM about the contract. This process and this idea has worked. There’s still things that have to be done but the fact that the contracts were revoked, that to me was the best plan.”
Cemex, a “global building materials company,” has been looking to mine a 493-acre plot of city-owned land just east of city of Santa Clarita limits for years.
“Cemex has not yet reviewed the BLM decision,” said Sara Engdahl, director of Communications for Cemex. “Cemex remains committed to this project, which we believe is important to the development and infrastructure of the state of California.
The Bureau of Land Management sent a letter in April, questioning Cemex’s ability to mine on Soledad Canyon.
Here’s a copy of the letter from Cemex
Cemex challenged a statement from federal officials, which claimed the international mining company hasn’t followed through on its responsibility.
Here’s a copy of the letter from the Bureau of Land Management.
“What amazing news for the Santa Clarita community after a decades-long struggle,” Senator Barbara Boxer said. “The Administration’s welcome announcement will protect the families of this area from the devastating effects of a large-scale mine.”
The city of Santa Clarita has been working with Cemex for several years to find a mutually beneficial compromise that would avoid the mine and compensate the company.
Related Story: Cemex Responds To Federal Questions About Mining Plan
If the project had been approved, residents could have been impacted by “excavation activities going on 17 hours per day, six days per week. Processing (would have been) scheduled to take place 16 hours a day and shipping activities (were) expected to take place 24 hours a day,” according to a statement from city officials.
The federal government initially sold the rights to mine Soledad Canyon but there have been several changes including traffic loads; the San Gabriel National Monument, which is adjacent to the mining site and was designated in 2014; the environmental documents and any permits would no longer be valid; and the opposition to the mine has grown stronger as Santa Clarita’s population has grown.
In 2007, the city of Santa Clarita and Cemex USA announced that they would seek a compromise agreement that would avoid mining in Soledad Canyon while compensating Cemex USA for the value of the mining contracts.
The City and CEMEX signed a four point agreement, “Principles for Cooperation,” according to the release. The agreement calls for CEMEX to suspend all permit processes for the Soledad mining project for one year; an agreement that was renewed annually for several years.
CEMEX agreed to cease efforts to obtain necessary-permitting for their mining project. Both parties agreed to cease all unfavorable advertising, paid or unpaid media, public relations, political efforts, according to the release. Previously, the City’s public relations campaigns have accelerated and the issue has received national media attention. Some of these efforts have included leasing a freeway billboard, wrapping a 45-foot commuter bus, forming a national alliance, and a sundry of other public relations tools and tactics aimed at drawing attention to the City’s effort to prevent the proposed mining project in Soledad Canyon.
United States Senator Barbara Boxer, former Congressman Buck McKeon and Representative Steve Knight had all been working for years to introduce bills that would resolve the dispute between the city and Cemex.
Boxer reintroduced McKeon’s Soledad Canyon Settlement Act, H.R. 5742, last November and would require the Bureau of Land Management to cancel current mining contracts in Soledad Canyon and prohibit future mining at the site.
“By ensuring that this bill will have no cost to the government or taxpayers, I believe we have increased our chances of passing it,” Boxer said, in a previous story. “This legislation has the support of the city of Santa Clarita and Cemex USA, and I am hopeful that we can work with both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to resolve this decades-long dispute and protect the people of the Santa Clarita Valley from pollution and traffic congestion.”
H.R. 5742 passed in the House of Representatives in December of last year.
“Cemex fully supports this legislation and is optimistic of its passage in the Senate,” said Sara Engdahl, director of communications for the mining company, in a previous story. “We will continue to keep the lines of communication open with the city of Santa Clarita as we move closer to a resolution.”
Knight sent a letter in July to Lieutenant General Thomas Bostick, Commanding General and Chief of Engineers at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to urge the agency to deny CEMEX the necessary permits to move forward with the mine.
“CEMEX has failed to comply with state and federal law, and must not be permitted to move forward with a mine in Soledad Canyon,” said Knight, in a previous story. “This message makes this abundantly clear and I am excited that my colleagues are joining me in reaffirming this fact.”
For more information about Cemex, read our previous stories here.
Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at [email protected].
Fantastic news!
This is great now that we’ve stopped potential jobs being introduced to our community what’s next, another monstrosity of a community being built? You know just like the one on Newhall Ranch Rd. or behind Saugus Speedway. Politicians are always doing this double talk about how now the air is protected from smog and the roads won’t be congested but I bet the 1st developer that had the money to buy the land will be able to build huge unaffordable, to most, homes that does the same thing they say this cemex plant would do. Create smog congestion on our roads. I guarantee they won’t let it turn into an offeoad park that would be used minimally at best so we could create a safer place to ride a dirt bike or drive a4 wheel drive because then that would tear up the land and make noise, but we need to build 1000 more homes because we need more traffic and smog but the politicians see it as an opportunity to create jobs for a growing community. Look, I’m not saying this plant would be good or bad but it doesn’t matter who owns the land because no one will be happy if someone wants to use it or build on it. Then they just turn it into a wilderness area so no one will ever get to use and/or enjoy the land. I’m so sick and tired of the gov’t and special interest groups controlling lives that don’t necessarily agree with them but the gov’t always caves in to the 1-2% special interest groups. But if money is to be made like building houses on land that was closed years ago to the off road community because we made to much noise or tore up the land and is not having step malls homes business’s all being built on it. Yeah that helps with our traffic smog and noise pollution. No wonder no one wants to stay in CA and have a business, politicians here suck. That’s why I moved mine to a more business friendly state. These are just a few of my observations over the years and just one man’s opinion. I’m sure there’s a ton of you that will only read my statement and think because it’s different than yours that I’m wrong. My way would be to discuss what’s best for the land area and people not just bulldoze my way onto someone else.
Emmett, when did you move to Santa Clarita? You are clearly clueless.
The City of Santa Clarita owns the land where the Soledad Mine is located. Unfortunately BLM owns the minerals underneath it. So nothing of your babbling about “other development” at the mine site can happen.
I guess you missed all of the discussion, way back in 2002, about how the tiny particles of dust from the mining operation were going to make people very sick in Canyon Country, with respiratory diseases ALL YEAR and that when the Santa Ana winds blew the dust would go all the way to Valencia and Saugus. The impact of the dust would have been especially bad kids with asthma. Santa Clarita has one of the highest child asthma rates in the county. The City was literally handing out bottles of dust from the mine site so that people could see how fine and dangerous it was and is.
There were air quality experts hired by the City who testified to the fact above, before the Board of Supervisors, in writing UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY. There was also a very well educated young physician who lived in the hills west of the 14 Freeway who repeatedly spoke at public rallies and at a meeting with Supervisor Mike Antonovich, saying the same thing.
Then there was the traffic impact report, prepared at the City of Santa Clarita’s expense, showing that the 14 Freeway would be gridlocked and moving very slowly all day, because of the roughly 1,600 truck trips going to and from the mine each day. Supervisor Antonovich was very upset about that because it would have made his constituents lives miserable in Newhall, Canyon Country, Agua Dulce, Acton, Palmdale and Little Rock, because thousands of them use the 14 Freeway to get to work. Again, that traffic impact report prepared at the City’s expense was filed with the Board of Supervisors, under PENALTY OF PERJURY, as being true and correct.
The business of “swearing in” witnesses who appear and testify in person or in writing before the Board of Supervisors has been going on for close to 20 years. So I guess you missed that part as well.
And I guess you missed the fact that the 980 acres of land south of the Saugus Swap meet is heavily contaminated with chemicals from 40 years of bomb manufacturing and testing there. It’s called Whittaker Bermite. Much of that property, including the parking lot for the Metrolink Station are so contaminated with volatile organic compounds which turn to gas which drift upward into the walls of buildings (vapor intrusion) that nothing for human habitation can be built on the property until the underground water is cleaned up, which will take 40 years. Also cutting across that property above the Swap Meet is the San Gabriel Fault, which has a 100′ set back on each side of it where nothing at all can be built. The State is supervising the toxic clean up of that property, and they are no where near done. The two people who have made it their “Holy Grail” mission to keep housing and schools off that property are Laurene Weste and Bob Kellar, the same two people who have been fighting against the Cemex mine since 2001 or earlier. In the case of keeping housing off Whittaker Bermite, Laurene West has been at it for at least 20 years!
Emmett, your post is great. While I would love an off road park so close to my house it is less important than the fact that they actually killed the hundreds of trucks that would be in the way every day, the dust that would be kicked up by it and the amount that would be invading my house daily since I live so close. I can only hope that they will make good use of the land when all is said and done. Clean up the ugly piles of used concrete and bricks, Restore the historic Lang Station and do something great that will attract people to the Canyon Country side of Santa Clarita. They could make an amazing park or campground.