Mining Lawsuit Settled

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to settle a lawsuit challenging the county’s rejection of a massive gravel quarry near Santa Clarita.

A lawyer for Cemex Inc., which hopes to create the mine, called the settlement a victory. But its effect on the project remained unclear: The settlement must still be approved by a federal judge, and no details will be made public until then.

As currently planned, the mine would extract 78 million tons of sand and gravel in Soledad Canyon. Opponents in north Los Angeles County have turned out by the hundreds at public meetings to decry its purported effects on traffic, air quality and other quality of life matters.

The federal Bureau of Land Management granted Cemex the mineral rights to the property. But county supervisors rejected the plan in February 2002.

Voting against the settlement Tuesday were Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Mike Antonovich, whose 5th District covers the Santa Clarita Valley.

Antonovich has raised concerns about the project in the past, especially over the truck traffic it would generate. An Antonovich spokesman said Tuesday that a federal gag order prevented him from commenting on the settlement vote.

Kerry Shapiro, an attorney representing Cemex, called the vote “a very significant step forward in the implementation of this mining project. We’ve been in the county process for almost 13 years now.”

Some kind of settlement in the case had been expected for months. Still, the supervisors’ vote was a disappointment for the city of Santa Clarita, which has been leading the opposition to the project. “Basically we’ve been expecting this,” city spokeswoman Gail Ortiz said, adding, “This is far from over. We’re in for a long battle.”

The city of Santa Clarita is hoping a federal appeals court will allow it to intervene in the Cemex lawsuit. The city has also filed a separate federal suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior alleging that federal approvals for the mine were granted without properly weighing the project’s effect on endangered species in the Santa Clara River watershed.

The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, lost a similar suit in U.S. District Court but has appealed the ruling.