Stricter Rules Shift Fortunes of Sand Miners : Environment: Vigorous code enforcement has led to the closure of several San Luis Rey River mining operations.

The San Luis Rey River is peaceful now.

That’s either good or bad, depending on whom you talk to.

Three years ago, there were six sand-mining firms along the river from Bonsall to the ocean. Now there is only one--the H.G. Fenton Material Co.

Stepped-up enforcement of environmental regulations by federal, state and local agencies over the past five years has led numerous sand miners to go out of business or be shut down for permit violations.

One firm--J.W. Sand and Materials Inc.--is likely to do both.

“We made a decision about three years ago that we would try to comply with everything that the county and various agencies required us to do, whereas prior to that, maybe that wasn’t so,” said Jerry Michals, director of operations for J.W. Sand & Materials.

County code enforcement officials agreed that they have received full cooperation from the company, something they don’t always get from other miners.

But three months ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a cease-and-desist order against the mine for an expired permit that most other miners in the area don’t have or haven’t ever applied for.

And, if and when J.W. Sand & Materials is allowed to resume mining, there is only enough sand in their permitted area to keep them in business for seven or eight months. Once it is mined out, the company is unlikely to apply for another permit to expand its operations, Michals said.

“It’s just too much of a hassle,” Michals said, both in terms of time and money.

At last count, there were about a dozen agencies--from the county to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency--that must give their blessing for a mining operation to start up, Michals said. While the permits themselves may not be expensive, studies that must be conducted to obtain the permits often reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Michals and others.

“There is no future in sand mining here. Nobody in their right mind would go back into the river again, or spend any money to try to do it. . . . San Diego County is a bureaucratic nightmare to do business in,” said George Cleland, vice president of California Sand, a firm that was closed by the county last year.

The river itself is what makes the area ripe for mining. The stream grinds down rocks on Palomar Mountain, and the sand makes its way down the river, where it is mined or finds its way to the ocean, where it makes up the beaches.

The mined sand is an integral part of concrete and paving, and the San Luis Rey River holds more than 70% of the county’s natural sand deposits.

“Literally speaking, the product comes to you. If you own a piece of land along the river, you dig the sand out, and over the next rainy season it gets filled with sand again,” said Ron Beckman, an engineer with the city of Oceanside.

“As more and more sand mining occurs, people observe the net result that you’re not getting the replacement sand from upstream because the next guy up the river is mining also.”

Flood-control projects also have contributed to a lack of downstream sand, all of which has created rocky North County beaches devoid of sand, erosion of bridges and of areas upstream and downstream from mines, and disruption of riparian habitat for the endangered least Bell’s vireo.

Elizabeth White, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said that 90% of the state’s wetlands habitat has been destroyed, and the corps is now jealously guarding what is left of it, including the area along the San Luis Rey River.

“We are at a critical stage, and we are trying to ensure compliance under the Clean Water Act,” which gives the agency the power to regulate dredging and filling of all waterways, White said.

Beckman said some miners have an Old West mentality toward the land.

“They figure they own the land and take the mentality of ‘I can do whatever the hell I damned well please on my land,’ ” Beckman said.

Reginald Marron of the Marron Bros. Inc. sand mining operation shares that sentiment.

“It’s our property, it’s our sand, and we have the right to do with it what we want. Now, the county has taken our livelihood away,” said Marron, whose operation was closed by the county a year and a half ago.

He and his brother, Sylvester, were jailed for 10 days last month for failing to comply with a court order that they clean up their mining site.

While Beckman agrees that the regulations have been financially constraining on miners, he says “that’s the price we pay for protecting our resource.”

“The people upstream have the right to use the property too, and when you use your property, you have the obligation to use it without damaging the property of others,” Beckman said.

Beckman said excessive sand mining along the San Luis Rey River caused about $1 million in damage to two Oceanside bridges, and required the Army Corps of Engineers to import sand to restore the river at a cost of $1.3 million.

But the sand miners contend that the regulations are enforced unevenly and that the end result will be high housing costs. Cleland, of California Sand, complains that different county inspectors on different occasions would interpret permits in different ways. His firm spent $150,000 in studies to try to develop a plan that the county would accept, he said.

Sue Gray, chief of code enforcement for the county Department of Planning and Land Use, said California Sand “mined considerably beyond the limits of their permit. . . . They didn’t protect the open space easement and other areas that were supposed to be maintained.

“They were just really ignoring their permit.”

But regulators concede that, 10 years ago, there was very little in the way of enforcement. It was not until the last six or seven years that investigators started to shut mines down for permit violations.

“It’s unfortunate that enforcement actions have taken this long to come about. I can understand the miners’ frustrations to some extent,” said Suzanne Audet, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Many sand miners agree that past abuses of the river may have brought on the increased enforcement.

“There were a lot of people flagrantly violating their permits and doing damage along the river, and those actions caused enough damage to the river and to the community around it that it caused the county to be more environmentally aware,” said one miner.

Gray, of the county, said no new regulations on sand mines have been passed. But agencies have begun to take mining along the river more seriously. And, input from local residents has been key in getting that done.

“The public has become much more aware and concerned about sand mining, and they have called to our attention things that are occurring there that have caused us to be out there more often,” Gray said.

Sand mining sites normally are inspected annually, but miners say monthly inspections are not unusual now.

Most miners and regulators agree that the increased population along the river over the last decade has led to stricter enforcement.

That’s a claim worn proudly by Dominic Savoca, president of the citizen activist group called Bonsall Area for a Rural Community.

“We live here. The community doesn’t say you can’t make a living mining sand, but do it the right way,” said Savoca, who often scours the county files for permits and keeps a close eye on the sand miners.

Savoca, who has lived in the area since 1976, agreed that the regulations on mining can be too stringent at times, but said that miners bring much of their troubles on themselves by trying to subvert the system.

“The time that they waste blatantly refuting the rules and breaking them only delays things and nothing is accomplished,” he said.

Roger Gordon, of Gordon Sand and Gravel Mines, is one of those who Savoca feels has played by the rules. But Gordon has gotten out of the business.

“You can’t have all the regulatory agencies who want to regulate and have any profit in it,” according to Gordon, who has mined up to the limits of his current permit, which does not expire until 2007.

Ironically, it is the sand mining that helped the recent population growth to occur.

“People are starting to complain about the very things that allowed them to build their homes,” said Cleland, who said his mine was operating in 1982, before many of the houses in the area were built.

Cleland and others say they plan to move their operations to neighboring counties where regulations are not as stringently enforced. The result will be added costs for everything from buildings to roads to plaster.

“The builders are the ones who are going to be hurt,” Cleland said.

Beckman, the Oceanside engineer, agreed.

“The building boom has created a great demand for building materials, and the closer you can get to where it will be used, the cheaper it will be,” Beckman said.

Enforcement of mining regulations has gotten tighter, and it is likely that many of those out of business now will stay out of business, Beckman said.

“It may be possible to allow some sand mining on an extremely limited basis, but nowhere near where we allowed it in the past,” he said.