Santa Clarita Fights Plan for 20-Year Mine Project

Santa Clarita city officials and residents are 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 lower 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 revenues and increase commuting times because of heavy truck traffic on the area’s roads and freeways.

“This project . . . is absolute death to our community,” said Rick Putnam, deputy city manager.

A spokesman for Transit Mixed Concrete Co. said the pit is necessary to keep pace with construction 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 is set to consider the matter Jan. 23. Residents have vowed to voice their opposition.

The federal Bureau of Land Management, which owns mineral rights to the property, approved the project in August, but the company must secure a county mining permit, said Brian Mastin, a spokesman for Transit Mixed.

Under its agreement with the company, the Bureau of Land Management stands to reap the largest share of $28 million in royalty payments to county, state and federal governments.

“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 company 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.

Study Says Reserves Won’t Run Out Soon

The city-commissioned study, prepared by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College, concludes that “Los Angeles County is not in serious threat of a shortage of . . . aggregate material at any time during the 21st century.”

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

Mastin countered that the aggregate resources are of little use to builders of homes and roads.

Although the Transit Mixed mine could mean a reduction in consumer prices for sand and gravel in Los Angeles County, according to the study, it would hurt the residents of the Santa Clarita Valley and commuters.

“This is a regional issue,” Putnam said. “This project will have a negative impact on traffic on every freeway.”

According to an environmental impact report on the project, 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 per minute in the second 10 years.

Last week, Santa Clarita filed a federal lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management, alleging that the agency had approved the mine without complying with the Endangered Species Act. The city has issued a notice that it intends to file a second suit against the bureau and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, alleging that the agencies 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.