Cemex at odds with proposed bill

Cemex says that a bill introduced April 18 to block a proposed sand-and-gravel mine in Santa Clarita, Calif., is not a viable resolution to a long-running dispute between the approved open-pit operation and local residents, reports the Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., introduced the Soledad Canyon Settlement Act in a bill last week that proposes a land-swap deal in exchange for Cemex’s contracts for the mine, which would extract 56 million tons of sand and gravel over 20 years. But a company spokeswoman says the bill doesn’t go far enough.

“The bill introduced by (Boxer) today does not fully take into account the compensation that Cemex is legally entitled to in the event its contracts with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management are canceled,” says Cemex’s Sara Engdahl.

“As a result, Cemex does not view this newly introduced legislation in its current form to be a viable resolution.”

According to the Santa Clarita Valley Signal, the bill would direct the federal Bureau of Land Management to cancel Cemex’s sand and gravel mining leases for this particular site and prevent it from being mined in the future. It would also instruct the bureau to sell nearby land and use those proceeds to compensate Cemex for the value of the canceled contracts.

Cemex won mining contracts from the Bureau of Land Management for this site about 20 years ago. The city of Santa Clarita and other local agencies have fought to block the mine for years.