Board Asks for More Study on Santa Clarita Mine

Citing a need for more traffic studies, the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday postponed until January a decision on plans for a large sand and gravel mine in Soledad Canyon near Santa Clarita.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who opposes the mine, said truck traffic estimates in an environmental impact report were flawed because they depend on a future widening of Soledad Canyon Road. County planners said the two-lane road cannot be safely widened.

The board directed the planning staff to come up with alternatives to a wider road. The supervisors voted unanimously to review the mine proposal again on Jan. 22, but indicated that even then, a decision might not be possible.

About 300 north county residents attended the meeting to protest the plans for the 460-acre mine, which would be just east of Santa Clarita. The project would be operated by Transit Mixed Concrete Co., a subsidiary of Mexico-based Cemex, which already has federal approval.

Opponents contend the mine would lower property values, pollute the environment and clog traffic.

County officials have tinkered with the mine plans for nearly three years.

On Tuesday, some opponents said the board’s delay could prompt another look at using trains to haul the gravel away, something that county and federal officials say cannot be done for cost and other reasons.

“This will give us a chance to say, ‘Is rail haul a possible option?’ ” said Bob Haueter, an aide to Antonovich.

Cemex representatives expressed frustration with the postponement and said the county should have caught any problem in the environmental report earlier.

“We’ve done the [traffic] analyses; I don’t know what’s being asked for,” said Brian Mastin, Cemex’s environmental affairs manager. “This is another delay after years of working with the county.”

The north county residents hooted as supervisors tried to determine what went wrong with the report. The residents, many of whom traveled to the downtown hearing in buses chartered by the city of Santa Clarita, which opposes the mine, said they would return to fight the project in January.

“It seems like we have a better chance because it seems that [the supervisors] don’t even know the facts,” said Pat Warford, 56, of Santa Clarita.

Antonovich also directed the staff to study potential effects of additional traffic on the Antelope Valley Freeway. Mastin said the mine would place so few trucks on the freeway that a study is unnecessary.