City Slams Gravel Company’s Record

Escalating their attack, Santa Clarita city officials charged Monday that the corporation seeking to open a gravel mine in Soledad Canyon has accumulated $2 million in fines for environmental violations in other parts of the country.

The company, Houston-based Southdown Inc., has been fined for violations of air, soil and ground-water quality rules in Alabama, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, city officials said.

Santa Clarita is seeking to block plans by a Southdown subsidiary, Transit Mixed Concrete, to open a 460-acre sand and gravel mine just outside city limits, saying it will harm the environment.

Southdown spokesman Brian Mastin said he could not immediately respond in detail to the city’s charges, which were leveled in a news release. But he called the information “inaccurate and overstated.

“And I don’t believe any of the operations they refer to pertain to sand and gravel mining, which is what we’re proposing [in Soledad Canyon],” he said.

Santa Clarita officials said the information discredits Southdown’s claim of an excellent record of environmental compliance.

The Soledad Canyon mine has been approved by the federal Bureau of Land Management and is scheduled for a hearing next month before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Southdown, the No. 2 U.S. cement producer, was purchased recently by Mexican cement giant Cemex for $2.6 billion.