Aggregate mining begins with removing the ‘overburden’ (the overlying material) to expose the sand, gravel, or stone. The overburden is then either sold, stockpiled for reclamation activities, or used for constructing berms around the mine site. The underlying material is drilled and blasted; the rock is then extracted with power shovels, bulldozers, or draglines. It is then crushed, washed, screened and sorted by size. It is usually moved around the plant on conveyer belts. Finally, it is loaded on trucks for shipment, or mixed with other ingredients to create ready-mix concrete.
Per the terms of the consent decree, Cemex will be fully-operational Monday through Saturday from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. for all mining, excavation, crushing, screening, transporting and stockpiling activities. Blasting operations will occur between the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.; there will be no blasting on Sundays and holidays. Cemex will provide notice in local papers and on the internet of when blasting is to occur.
For all other operations, Cemex is permitted to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These operations would include supply deliveries, maintenance activities, batch plant operations, loading and shipping activities.
Traffic
In August, Cemex stated that "[It] has agreed to limit the number of trucks entering and leaving the site to 8 trucks during the morning peak period and 20 trucks in the evening peak traffic period”. The Environmental Impact Report generated for this project, as well as the Environmental Impact Statement issued by BLM, stated that the Cemex project would not have any significant impact on traffic.
Item #13 of Article H of the Consent Decree deals specifically with traffic issues, and this item does state that trucks are limited as specified in the Cemex press release. It is important to point out that the morning peak period is defined as only a 1-hour period between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.; the evening peak period is also a one-hour period defined as 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
This Item also goes on to say: Cemex “shall limit outbound truck trips to 57 during the hour prior to the a.m. peak hour (6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.) and 57 outbound truck trips during the hour following the a.m. peak hour (7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.).” It further spells out the specific efforts which Cemex will use to attempt to limit the trucks visiting the site, but then notes that “the failure of these measures to achieve the inbound limits shall not constitute a violation of the permit.”
In other words, if Cemex fails to control the number of trucks during these hours defined as ‘peak periods’, they won’t be penalized for it.
Air Quality Impact
Aggregates are environmentally inert materials, and their processing requires only crushing, screening, and washing The main concerns to air quality are dust from operations and diesel emissions from mining equipment and trucks.
Santa
Clarita already has some of the worst air quality in the nation, according to
Joe Cassmassi of the South Coast Air Quality District. “The levels of ozone —
which is a form of oxygen, but is a pollutant — have been recorded to be fairly
high in the Santa Clarita Valley. It has a relatively high frequency”, he said
in a
November, 2005 interview.He said later in the same interview that the dust expected to be generated by the Cemex project would violate the state’s standard for particulate matter, but not the federal standard. However, the impact of the diesel emissions from the mine machinery and trucks could require residents along the transit route and in the surrounding community to be notified.
The operation of the mine on windy days is of particular concern to area officials. In January of 2005, the AQMD enacted severe restrictions on mining operations during high winds. A mining trade group sued the AQMD, charging the rule is too hard to follow and enforce. The two parties have reached a settlement which calls for the rules to be re-evaluated and adjusted to allow some operations if proper dust control is utilized. This matter will be a subject of public hearings later this month.
Between 2001 and 2003, the Santa Clarita Valley recorded the third-highest levels of ozone in the air of any region within the United States. In 2005, 65 days exceeded the state standard for ozone, and 47 days exceeded the federal standard. Santa Clarita also has relatively high levels of particulate matter.
Local environmentalist Lynne Plambeck’s major concern with the Cemex mine is its impact on air quality. She is concerned that the mine will consistently generate particulate matter into the atmosphere, and the emissions from trucks and machinery will make our air quality even worse than it already is. These tiny particles can become lodged in the lungs and cannot be removed, causing permanent lung damage and an increase in asthma rates.
It is true that asthma rates have been increasing within the Santa Clarita Valley. This has been especially noticeable at the junior and senior high schools in our area. Christine Amstutz, supervisor of health services for Hart School District, said in a
2004 Daily News article: “In all the schools, we’re seeing a dramatic increase”.
Amstutz has done preliminary analysis to learn if there are specific asthma
clusters in the district, and believes her research proves that there is a
higher asthma rate of children attending schools built closer to development
projects as well as close to the mines & quarries near Soledad Canyon.Experts from the LA County Department of Health have said that any correlation between asthma rates and the quarries has not been studied enough, and point to other factors which could be the cause.
Environmental Impact on the Santa Clara River
Lynne Plambeck (SCOPE) also has major concerns about water quality and water supply. Under the terms of the Consent Decree, Cemex would be allowed to develop water wells and pumping facilities near the Santa Clara River, and will be allowed to pump over 700 acre-feet from the river for mining operations. Downstream, underground flow from the river is a source of water for Santa Clarita, and this will mean less water for the municipal water districts who depend upon the river for a portion of their water. These agencies already have difficulty meeting demand during the dry season.
Adequate water within the river is critical for survival of at least two endangered species, the Southwestern Arroyo Toad and the Unarmored Threespine Stickleback fish.
The Southwestern Arroyo Toad makes its home along the shallow, gravelly pools next to sandy terraces along the rivers. Designated as endangered in 1995, the remaining populations in the U.S. are found within or adjacent to the Cleveland National Forest. It has also been found in parts of the river located within city limits.
The Unarmored Threespine Stickleback fish, a freshwater fish, was listed as an endangered species in 1970. This fish, found primarily in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, prefers to make its nest where there is ample vegetation and a gentle flow of water.
Ron Bottoroff, of Friends of the Santa Clara River, said “Friend's major concern with this project is that it will pump too much water out of the river for gravel washing processes. That will begin to cause areas of the river to dry up that would normally have surface water, and will cause vegetation die-off. It could also impact the survival possibilities of the Unarmored Threespine Stickleback, a federal and state endangered fish. Soledad Canyon has a lot of biological value and is not a good place for mining of this nature.”
Plambeck praises the city’s efforts to stop the mine, but expresses her dismay that the city did not work harder to block the 21,000+ unit Newhall Ranch project. “The impacts of the Newhall Ranch project are just as devastating to the river and the environment as the Cemex project would be”, she stated.
The proposed Cemex mine is opposed by more than 90 agencies, environmental organizations, and special interest groups.
The Dirt on Cemex's Environmental Record
Cemex is one of the leading producers of ready mix concrete, and has operations spread across five continents. Cemex operates over 280 ready-mix concrete plants and 12 cement plants with 49 distribution centers here in the United States. Cemex has numerous other ready-mix locations within the greater Los Angeles area, including Azusa and the Inland Empire.
Cemex has won several industry awards, including most recently the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association 2006 Environmental Excellence Award for one of its plants in Houston. Cemex also won the World Environment Center Gold Medal for International Corporate Environmental Achievement in 2002.
Cemex is a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and is one of 10 other cement companies who have participated in the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) . This project explored ways for improving industry operations in the areas of climate protection, fuels and raw materials, employee health and safety, emissions reductions and local impacts.
But Cemex’s record is not entirely clean: A search of EPA violations found that 8 Cemex plants had ‘alleged current significant violations’, which has resulted in 4 formal enforcement actions and 15 informal enforcement actions over the past three years.
In
June of 2006, the State of New Mexico Environment Department found
violations of multiple air-quality standards and operating permits at six
facilities operated by Cemex in Dona Ana and Otero counties. These violations
included operation of equipment without a permit, failure to conduct air-quality
compliance tests, and failure to maintain asphalt equipment at proper
temperatures. Recent tests in the area had shown more dust and other pollutants
in the air in Dona Ana county as compared to other parts of the state.Some of these violations occurred at their plants in Lyons, Colorado, and Charleviox, Michigan; however, the violations had more to do with the operating temperature of the cement kilns, which will not be used in the Soledad Canyon operation.
All in all, with over 292 facilities in operation around the United States, violations at eight plants represents 2.74% of its facilities, which is a rather respectable record.
Cemex is also meeting opposition for its plans to construct a ready-mix concrete plant in Florida. As within Santa Clarita, citizen groups have been formed and opposition is mounting within the community to prevent mining in their community.
The County's Role
The rapid urbanization of the United States in the latter part of the twentieth century, along with the development of the interstate freeway system, led to an unprecedented amount of aggregate usage. And this trend will continue; it has been projected that in the next 25 years, the USA will use nearly as much construction aggregate as was used in the entire 20th century. In some regions, aggregate is considered as essential of a resource as electricity or gas.
Rapid urbanization without thought to mineral resource development led to some aggregate resources being lost due to development. Once a potential sand and gravel source is paved over, it is likely lost forever as a mineral resource, and communities are usually resistant to new mines being located in their midst. In 1967, the California state General Code was amended to add “natural resources” to the list of things that must be considered in land use planning. In 1973, the California Division of Mines & Geology published a report that showed the need for mineral resources and how these were being needlessly lost to the people of the state.
In 1975, California passed the first state law designed to create a regional database to identify and preserve the remaining aggregate resources. The legislature declared that “the extraction of minerals is essential to the economic well being of the state and to the needs of society …" This law mandated counties to incorporate mineral resource management policies into their general plans. In 1987, the county identified Soledad Canyon as an important aggregate resource, and in 1990, BLM leased the mineral rights to Transit Mixed Concrete, who was later aquired by Cemex.
In
2004, when the county Board of Supervisors voted to deny the operating permit,
besides filing the appropriate legal documents, Cemex also appealed the denial
to the state of California’s Mining & Geology Board. Although the board ruled
that they were preempted from reviewing the appeal, the board’s chairman stated
“the public record demonstrates delay and indecision by Los Angeles County in
its processing of the surface mining application. The county’s conduct in this
area is surprising given the surface mining infrastructure already developed,
and surface mining history of the mineral lands in question, and given that the
state and the county through its mineral resource management policies
incorporated into its general plan, sought since 15 years ago to protect these
identified important mineral resources from permanent loss due to encroaching
urbanization.”In spite of the knowledge that the site was planned for mining, the county continued to approve housing developments in close proximity to the mine site, including lower Stonecrest, built between 1997 and 1999, and Upper Stonecrest, built around 2003. It is unclear whether these residents were fully notified about the proposed mining operation when they purchased their new homes.
Even today, the county continues to approve housing developments around the proposed mine site, including the 542-home Spring Canyon development, approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2004. The Spring Canyon development will be built to the east of Stonecrest, and will be even closer to the proposed mine.
In fact, at one time, a 556 factory-built housing project (Bee Canyon Mobile Home Park) was proposed on the land between SR-14 and directly abutting the Cemex mine site. The project was withdrawn from the planning commission in April of 2006 due to opposition from both Cemex and the Federal Government; however, the terms of the consent decree call for Cemex to construct a soundwall on the property line should the property ever be developed.
The consent decree contains a detailed history of the project, beginning on page 25. It also includes a very intriguing clause on pages 13 through 18, under the heading “Enforceability”. There is a provision within this section which states that if the County does anything to delay, frustrate, or prevent the timely and successful implementation of the project during the first two years following startup of the mining project, Cemex has the option to disclose something the County did between April 22, 2003 and October 1, 2003, defined in the consent decree as “Retroactive Conduct”. This “Retroactive Conduct” is not defined and it seems the all parties are keeping this to themselves. It is unclear how this provision would affect the county’s ability to take action if Cemex fails to comply with mitigation requirements.
What's Next?
Cemex’s proposed mining operation will no doubt have negative impacts on traffic congestion. Although it is true that Cemex will attempt to limit trucks to a minimum during peak times, these peak times are only for one hour in the morning, and one hour in the afternoon. Per the terms of the consent decree, Cemex is limited to 57 trucks leaving the plant in both the hour preceeding the a.m. rush hour as well as the hour immediately following.
Moreover,
there is no question that air quality, already problematic, will get worse. The
mine will increase particulate matter in the air through its operations, and the
diesel emissions of the trucks and mining equipment will further spew pollutants
into the air. The Santa Clara River will no doubt be impacted as well. There is
much conflicting data from the experts on both sides regarding the overall
impact of the mining operation.However, Cemex’s environmental record is pretty good; my own search of the internet and of EPA files showed relatively few infractions. If anyone has information to prove otherwise, please post it below.
With a shortage of aggregate in our area, and aggregate resources nearing depletion in the San Fernando Valley, the need for the resources located in Soledad Canyon will only increase, as will the pressure to begin mining operations. Cemex is hoping to begin in 2008.
There are still lawsuits pending, so the final outcome has not yet been determined. Ultimately, the success of the city’s efforts to scale back the size of the mine ultimately lies in the support and efforts of its citizens. Whether these efforts will be successful still remains to be seen.