Santa Clarita Launches Campaign to Stop Mining Project

Santa Clarita city officials and residents have squared off against a mining company seeking county approval to extract 56 million tons of sand and gravel from a site just east of the city.

As part of a $1.2-million campaign against the project, the city commissioned a study that concluded the mine would probably decrease the value of 9,600 existing and approved homes within five miles. The study, released last week, also found that the mine would reduce property tax revenue and increase commuting time because of heavy truck traffic on the area’s roads and freeways.

“This project . . . is absolute death to our community,” said Rick Putnam, Santa Clarita deputy city manager. “It would be devastating.”

A spokesman for Transit Mixed Concrete Co. said the pit is necessary to keep pace with the building in the county.

By a 5-0 vote, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission denied Transit Mixed a permit in December 1999. The company is appealing that decision to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which will consider the matter Jan. 23. Residents have vowed to arrive by the busload to voice opposition.

The federal Bureau of Land Management, which owns mineral rights to the property, approved the project in August, though the company still needs a county mining permit, said Brian Mastin, a spokesman for Transit Mixed. The company is a division of Houston-based Southdown Inc., which recently was purchased by Cemex of Mexico for $2.6 billion.

Under its agreement with Transit Mixed, the bureau stands to reap the largest share of $28 million in royalty payments to county, state and federal governments. It is the largest contract in the agency’s history. The county’s portion would be about $275,000 over the 20-year period.

“We don’t object to mining; we’ve had it for years,” Putnam said. “. . . What we have a problem with is the size of the project. This project is 15 times the size of any other in the county.”

The state will run out of sand and gravel reserves by 2015 if no new mine permits are issued or no more material is imported, Mastin said.

The city and Transit Mixed officials disagree over the amount of sand and gravel reserves and resources at the 460-acre site. Reserves are deposits owned and controlled by a mining company with a permit to extract them. Resources include all of the aggregate deposits in an area, according to the state Division of Mines and Geology.

Los Angeles County is not facing a serious threat of a shortage of aggregate material in the 21st century, according to the city-commissioned study, prepared by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College.

The study also said mines in Sun Valley--the primary source for most of aggregate in the region--have enough reserves to last until 2025 and enough resources to last beyond that.

Mastin said the aggregate resources are of little use to builders of homes and roads. “What good are resources going to do you if you don’t have a permit to make them into products?” he asked.

Though the Transit Mixed mine could mean a reduction in consumer prices for sand and gravel in the county, the study said it would adversely affect commuters and residents of the Santa Clarita Valley.

“This is a regional issue,” Putnam said. “This project will have a negative impact on traffic on every freeway, not just the 14 but the 5, the 405, the 210, the 118, every freeway.”

An environmental impact report on the project said the mine would operate six days a week, 17 hours a day, from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. for 20 years. Trucks would travel in and out of the mine 24 hours a day at an average of one every two minutes in the first 10 years and one each minute in the second 10 years.

The Rose study did not compute the cost of the project in relation to its effect on the health of residents, the environment or future economic development, but noted it would be significant.

Of the 78 million tons of material mined, Transit Mixed would produce and sell 56 million tons of sand and gravel. The remaining 22 million tons would be too fine for construction and would be returned to the pit.

Last week, Santa Clarita filed a lawsuit contending that the BLM approved the mine without complying with the Endangered Species Act. The city has issued a notice of intent to file a second lawsuit against both the bureau and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, contending that they failed to study the mine’s effects on the endangered unarmored three-spine stickleback fish and the spineflower. The agencies have 60 days to respond before the suit can be filed.

“We have no doubt this will be settled in court,” said Gail Ortiz, spokeswoman for Santa Clarita, who added that most of the $1.2 million the city spends will go for attorney fees. “Whichever way the supervisors decide, the other side will appeal it.”