Knight urges timely decision on Cemex

Congressman joins three colleagues in penning letter

Santa Clarita Valley Congressman Steve Knight joined with three of his colleagues on the other side of the aisle to send a letter Thursday urging a decision be reached as soon as possible in the fight over the status of Cemex mining contracts in Soledad Canyon.

Knight — along with Congresswoman Judy Chu, D-Pasadena; Congressman Adam Schiff, D-Burbank; and Congressman Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks — sent the letter requesting a timely decision on Cemex’s appeal of a decision from the Bureau of Land Management to cancel its mining contracts.

“An early resolution of this issue will bring a longterm dispute to a well-deserved conclusion,” reads the letter, which was addressed to Department of the Interior Deputy Secretary Michael Connor.

The BLM awarded Cemex two contracts in 1990 to extract 56 million tons of sand and gravel from hundreds of acres in Soledad Canyon in Canyon Country.

In a surprise about-face, the BLM reversed course last August and revoked the contracts, saying Cemex had not made progress in fulfilling the contracts’ terms since they were issued.

Cemex appealed the decision the next month.

That appeal is still in the hands of the Interior Board of Land Appeals, which issues final decisions for the Department of the Interior, which includes the BLM.

The letter from Knight, R-Palmdale, and his colleagues indicates the appeal process could be a lengthy one.

The Board of Land Appeals, the letter says, “employs a very deliberative process that can typically take in excess of two years” before a decision is handed down.

“We believe it is in the interest of all parties to secure a determination at the earliest opportunity,” the letter continues.

Santa Clarita city officials have battled the Cemex mine for years, saying it would pollute Santa Clarita Valley air, choke Highway 14 with truck traffic and compromise the general quality of life in the valley.

Recent years saw the mining firm and the city call a truce and cooperate on possible legislative solutions to the dispute.

All those efforts failed.

The BLM’s decision to cancel the contracts last year, local officials said, brought the dispute closer than ever to final resolution.

“Our community scored a major victory last August when Cemex’s contracts were canceled, but this is not over yet,” said Knight in a statement Thursday. “I will continue fighting until we have eliminated any possibility of a mine in Soledad Canyon.”