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Ding, Dong, Cemex is Dead

Take a Hike | Commentary by Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel

Dianne Hellrigel | Sunday, Aug 30, 2015

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U.S. Rep. Steve Knight deserves the award of the century. He has fought Cemex and he has won.

Truly, this is the best news for Santa Clarita, Agua Dulce and Acton that we ever could have hoped for. The congressman made the announcement Friday that the federal Bureau of Land Management is rescinding the contracts Cemex held on land in the Soledad corridor.

The city of Santa Clarita and the majority of the constituents have been fighting Cemex for 20 years. U.S. Rep. Buck McKeon and Sen. Barbara Boxer introduced legislation over and over again, and none of those bills ever came to the floor for a vote except for the very last bill McKeon introduced. It was hurriedly brought to the floor before the last Christmas break, was received a unanimous “yea” vote. But it was held up in the U.S. Senate by one senator from New Mexico, so the bill failed.

Many of us thought we’d lost our last opportunity to escort Cemex out of town. Cemex threatened immediately to begin operations.

But McKeon retired, and the Cemex debacle was handed over to Knight, our newest, brightest star. He managed to negotiate this health hazard and habitat destroyer right out of town. In only eight months, he has accomplished what others failed to do in years.

“Preventing Cemex from breaking ground on this mine has been my top priority since I took office. After eight months, I can proudly say that we have reached a turning point that was almost unheard of just a year ago,” Knight said in a statement.

The effect of Cemex not being allowed to break ground will be huge. There are many endangered and rare species close to the proposed mine area. It would have destroyed their habitat and in many cases just killed them outright. It would have poisoned our ground water, polluted our air, further jammed our surface streets and freeways with an additional 1, 164 truck trips every day, and it would have destroyed the Magic Mountain wilderness that is located immediately across the Santa Clara River from the potential mining site.

The San Gabriel Mountains National Monument that was signed into law by presidential proclamation last Oct. 10 was also immediately opposite the Cemex site. National monuments are supposed to protect historical and scientific sites. Cemex would have destroyed some, including some Native American petroglyphs.

Further, the mining site was located in the middle of the prime wildlife linkage that connects the San Gabriel Mountains to the Sierra Pelonas, the non-contiguous northern Angeles National Forest, the Los Padres, the Santa Susanas and ultimately the Eastern Sierra. If that area were disturbed a minimum of 17 hours a day for mining and 24 hours a day for shipping, it would destroy the linkage and have a grave impact on wildlife migration, genetic diversity and ultimately perhaps the species survival.

In addition, the airborne pollutants such as arsenic, uranium and cadmium that are always byproducts of mining would have caused some horrendous health problems for the citizens living close to the mine area. Diseases like valley fever most likely would surface and affect many of our citizens. Our land values would have plummeted, our pets would get sick, and we’d be having negative interactions with our forest predators because they would not cross through the linkage due to all of the noise and trucks. That means the bears and mountain lions would be working their way through neighborhoods and people’s back yards to try to negotiate their way to the next patch of forest. As a result of that, we’d be missing our pets as they became appetizers for the predators, and suffer untold property damage.

Cemex area in Soledad Canyon

Heidi Webber, a constituent who lives close to the proposed mine site, had this to say: “Now we won’t have to worry about a myriad of things such as air quality, explosions 24 hours a day, dust, airborne pollutants and diseases like valley fever. Our property values won’t take a dive and the freeway won’t be clogged with extra gravel trucks flooding the freeway 24 hours a day, with the accompanying pollution associated with that, let alone sand and gravel escaping them to pelt vehicles following behind. I cannot thank the congressman enough.”

The Bureau of Land Management, which holds the mining rights, issued a decision to rescind the two mineral materials contracts for the sale of sand and gravel in Soledad Canyon that were issued to a predecessor of Cemex in 1990. Cemex failed to follow through with all of the necessary actions to make those contracts effective. In the 25 years since the contracts were issued, Cemex and its predecessors failed to fulfill the terms set forth. Knight worked tirelessly with the BLM and the Army Corps of Engineers to finalize this deal.

The official termination document was delivered to Cliff Kirkmeyer, the executive vice president of Cemex USA, by Jim Kenna, the state director of the BLM.

Rep. Steve Knight

I can scarcely believe we all get to wake up with Cemex not being an issue on our horizon. Santa Clarita will still be the best, cleanest, safest city in which to live and work. It will remain that way without the Cemex blight that was almost upon us. Cemex is shut out forever. Thank you to all of the city officials who have worked so hard on this for so many long years. Thank you to all of the people who wrote letters. Thank you to our senators who tried so hard to dump Cemex. Thank you to U.S. Reps. Judy Chu and Brad Sherman and our wonderful City Council members. And a special thank you to our brilliant congressman who found a way to make it happen.

“Today is a great day,” Knight said. “Since I became a Member of Congress nearly eight months ago, I have fought tirelessly to prevent Cemex from mining in Soledad Canyon. Today, the Bureau of Land Management announced that Cemex’s mining contracts in Santa Clarita are cancelled – effectively halting their mining in the area. This is a huge victory for our community which we have fought for, for many years.”

Please consider writing a thank you letter to our congressman, or giving his office a call to say thanks. Phone: D.C. 1-202-225-1956 or locally: 661-255-5630. For a letter: U.S. Rep. Steve Knight, 26415 Carl Boyer Drive, Santa Clarita, CA 91350.

Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel is executive director of the Community Hiking Club and president of the Santa Clara River Watershed Conservancy. Contact Dianne through communityhikingclub.org or at zuliebear@aol.com.

Comment On This Story

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31 Comments

Linda Pedersen says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

What a wonderful victory for our valley, but is the battle really over, will Cemex be able to file a lawsuit?

Reply
- SCVNews.com says:
  
  Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at
  
  Anyone can file a lawsuit, but Cemex does so at its own peril. Read the decision letter thoroughly .. http://scvnews.com/2015/08/28/feds-cancel-cemex-soledad-mining-contract/
  
  Reply
Vanessa Mendenhall says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

Thanks Diane for the awesome news !

And thanks Steve Knight ! You are a hero and yes he does deserve the award of the century !

Reply
- Shirley Vercelli says:
  
  Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at
  
  Glad I voted for you. Thanks?
  
  Reply
Steven Benson says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

Congressman Steve Knight is doing an excellent job for all in California’s 25th District.

Reply
Daniel Mendez says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

And so are new jobs in SCV.

Reply
- Shirley Vercelli says:
  
  Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at
  
  We don’t need those kinda jobs in this valley.we need to keep our air clean and truck traffic down on the 14 frwy. Both will save lives here!!
  
  Reply
- Daniel Mendez says:
  
  Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at
  
  Most diesel trucks have to be clean air certified and most accident are caused by morons cutting in front of trucks.
  
  Reply
- Joe Centeno says:
  
  Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at
  
  I agree with Danel Mendez
  
  Reply
Ann Hustis says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

Keeping all those trucks off the freeway.

Reply
Valerie Williams says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

I’m happy we have finally won. My dad spent years and years fighting this monster, and he would be proud of our great city, and filled with joy at this victory.

Reply
- Sharon Dawson says:
  
  Monday, Aug 31, 2015 at
  
  I worked with your dad Valerie and I know how happy he would be. I know he is smiling with this news!
  
  Reply
- Valerie Williams says:
  
  Monday, Aug 31, 2015 at
  
  I know he is, too. And that warms my heart. I know how much he believed in fighting against this, and what it meant to him to keep them out of SCV.
  
  Reply
Michael Grimshaw says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

Jamie Leakey Grimshaw

Reply
Cazper Rowsey says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

Bravo!

Reply
Melinda Horn Kohanes says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

Yay

Reply
Matt Graham says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

Thank god

Reply
Matt Graham says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

There are people who still care :)
Enough to fight these corporate beast

Reply
Heidi Webber says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

With Cemex dead, I really hope the BLM doesn’t sell mining rights to someone else. Hopefully the National Monument can be expanded or other protective measures can be put in place so we never have this happen again!

Reply
Marilyn Logan says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

This certainly is good news and I’m grateful to Rep. Knight and other congress people who fought CEMEX. I hope this improves our air quality because on The Los Angeles Times daily weather map Santa Clarita’s Air Quality is usually moderate (especially in the hotter months) or often unhealthful for sensitive people.

Reply
David Lael Hansen says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

Write him to keep all these Tobacco bills from passing until they separate Tobacco and vaping into two separate industries. Otherwise they will crush small business vaping under their thumb of Big Tobacco just like Walmart did.

Reply
Procoro Martinez says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

Everyone saying yay now but when you r freeways are cracked and messed up im should cemex wont be there .. And then what. Or when you need concrete for your homes are tou gonna pay more just to bring it from elsewere… Im cement mason and all with the cemex company keeping alot of americans busy and working …so think aout that lets worry about bigger things than the cemex comapny im sure they are a big part of scv economy and growth ..good job congressman not

Reply
- Jason R Curtis says:
  
  Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at
  
  People will just blame someone else for higher construction pricing!
  
  Reply
- Procoro Martinez says:
  
  Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at
  
  Yes as if. Its not expesive as it is now.
  
  Reply
Jason R Curtis says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

It’s always interesting to read peoples uneducated comments while only believing what they read instead of doing homework to learn what real issue are, if any. That land is good for ONE thing, mining! Health problems?? Really? Ooooook

Reply
Chuck McCalmont says:

Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 at

STEVE KNIGHT, Hero

Reply
Eric Walser says:

Monday, Aug 31, 2015 at

If you were hoping for a middle class productive job working for CEMEX, perhaps you should consider re-training to compete with a teenager for a position as a Disney floor sweeper. Waiting for the ironically-timed major earthquake to devastate awesome town, after which we can all weep bitterly at the self imposed concrete shortage that we suddenly realize actually matters.

Reply
Chuck Meorff says:

Wednesday, Sep 2, 2015 at

So the CEMEX contracts are cancelled. Will that prevent big companies like Lafarge or smaller companies winning contracts at the same site in near future? And what might their environmental standards be? CEMEX at least has a biodiversity action plan standard (find out online). Does this mean that the residents will turn their attention to Vulcan Materials Co. who are up the Soledad Canyon road extracting (who-knows-what)?

Reply
- SCVNews.com says:
  
  Wednesday, Sep 2, 2015 at
  
  The answer to your first question is yes; the answer to your second question is no. The city of Santa Clarita has a 15-year track record of supporting historic (i.e., current) mining levels.
  
  Reply
Allan Cameron says:

Friday, Sep 4, 2015 at

A reading of the actual 20 page “letter of decision” from the BLM to CEMEX will reveal that the mine is NOT AT ALL OVER WITH AND DEAD. This becomes even more clear if the current 20 page letter is compared with the March 2015 letter from the BLM to CEMEX. I wish it were so, but it is not. There are at least 15 major reasons why the mine is not yet dead. Among them: CEMEX has administrative rights to appeal and overturn the BLM decision. Those rights are actually fully listed in the letter of cancellation. None of the reasons contained in the March 2015 BLM letter as to why the mine is now inappropriate for this site are included in the 20 page letter as justifications for the cancellation. The sole reason listed in the 20 pate letter, is that CEMEX did not mine the site in a timely manner. There is no mention by the BLM of ANY COMMITMENT to terminate mining on the site. On the contrary, the letter repeats how necessary mining on this site is to the “well being” of LA County. The BLM is fully able to sell the mining rights to some other company. There is far, far more to this. Please do not fall pray any delusions of safety. This mine crisis is far, FAR from over. The two letters from the BLM can be found on the KHTS web site.

Reply
- SCVNews.com says:
  
  Friday, Sep 4, 2015 at
  
  We love KHTS and we encourage people to visit the KHTS website, but they’re also right here on our website, thanks.
  
  Reply

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