SACRAMENTO – The California State Senate overwhelmingly passed on Monday Senate Resolution 96 (SR 96) authored by Senator Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita), calling on the federal government to do whatever necessary to finally put an end to the proposed CEMEX, Inc. mega-mine in Soledad Canyon.
“Locating a massive mining operation on a heavily traveled route between the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys makes no sense for the nearly 175,000 daily commuters in those areas,” Wilk said.
“It will choke the 14 freeway and create environmental concerns for anyone living in the area which is why locals have been fighting it for almost 30 years,” he said. “This resolution puts the federal government on notice that California, as well as the communities impacted, want the project stopped once and for all.”
The resolution calls on Congress, the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, President Trump and Vice President Pence – all of whom have jurisdiction over the mine in one way or another – to take any and all action to stop the further development of the mine.
State Senator Henry Stern, who represents a portion of the western Santa Clarita Valley, coauthored the resolution with Wilk.
“We have been entrenched in a decades’ long battle to protect our community from a mining project that would bring the nation’s largest aggregate mine to Soledad Canyon and deplete the water flow from the river,” Wilk said. “Because much of the proposed mine is on federally controlled land, California’s hands are tied as far as what we can do to protect our community from this project. Congress should ask itself why everyone except CEMEX is against this mega-mine.”
“Opening this mine would do deep damage to the Santa Clarita River habitat in Soledad Canyon, and regional air quality and traffic,” said Senator Henry Stern (D-Canoga Park). “The federal government needs to understand California, on both sides of the aisle, does not want this mega-mine opened in our community.”
Recent efforts led by Congressman Steve Knight have made great progress towards limiting future operations in the Canyon. This resolution urges the federal government, at multiple levels, to take any and all possible action to ensure the current proposal, and the ills it would bring, do not materialize. It dovetails on the work Congressman Knight has done and underscores California’s desire to see that this project is ended once and for all.
The Secretary of the Senate will now transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the Senate, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Director of the United States Bureau of Land Management.
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Soledad Canyon mining area | Photo: SAFE Action for the Environment 
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6 Comments
I’ve been hearing about this place for a long time but have never been sure as to its exact location. I believe it is on the south side of the 14 Fwy about a mile or two east of Sand Canyon Road, where Soledad Canyon road goes under the 14. Is this correct?
yes …… it’s where this thing is: https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/sc1705.htm
??? I thought Buck McKeon took care of this years ago. What happened to the legislation he got passed to permanently put a stop to the Cemex mine?
It only passed the House. It’s a bicameral legislature.
I would suggest that the previous efforts to stop this project have been mostly fluff and nonsense. The Bureau of Land Management (look it up) wrote a report that indicated the strip mining of the sand and gravel in Soledad Canyon up to and into the Agua Dulce Cyn Road area would allow hundreds of double-trailer trucks to daily haul the products of strip mining to all of the important “growth” areas of Southern California via State Route 14. In other words, the areas east of the boundary of Santa Clarita would be the source for the major road and concrete construction industry in the Greater LA County area. And we would share the road with their hundreds of double trailer trucks on your way to work in the SFV or LA.
The BLM’s letter establishing a position against that “usage” did not remove the rights that Cemex had purchased along with the property. That would require an act of Congress to support the BLM’s finding and stop the mining of sand and gravel in Soledad Canyon/Agua Dulce.
That has not happened, neither under Buck McKeon’s tenure, nor Steve Knight’s. Nor could Wilk’s effort make a difference since he has no authority over Federal Land rights.
We’re still in the cross-hairs, folks. And unless somebody in this valley has a “get those Gravel-grinders out of town” card to play, things are going to be dusty, slow and ridiculous in this town.
And 95% of the folks necessary to raise a stink about this don’t even know about it. Turtle shells, Unite!
I’ve never seen more BS from a community that’s knows nothing about what they speak. The proposed mine would have absolutely NO impact on your life except take traffic that will come there anyway to suppprt your growth from a longer distance…. you could have worked with the company to be a positive in your community… but your so ignorant to what actually goes on with these operations that you cut your own throat to make yourself feel good… Wilkes is a Republican… he cant even handle his own constituency… typical politician taking the easy way out to save his own butt…. whatever…. continue to act like you did something. When the developments are approved and the materials to build them start coming from farther distances clogging your highway…, remember how smart you were…. idiots