CEMEX DROPS SUIT CHALLENGING REVIEW.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Cemex has dropped its lawsuit challenging the environmental review in the city's plan to annex 1,885 acres where the company's 56.1 million-ton mine is planned, a company official said Tuesday.

In exchange, the city of Santa Clarita agreed to prepare a full environmental impact report instead of the more abbreviated one officials planned. The settlement was finalized at the end of July, attorneys for Cemex said.

``I find it interesting the city has filed numerous lawsuits against the Soledad Canyon project claiming inadequate levels of environmental review, yet chose itself to initially prepare a minimal level of environmental review in assessing the annexation of the proposed mining site,'' said Kerry Shapiro, the lead attorney for Cemex's Soledad Canyon project.

In 1990, the Bureau of Land Management granted Cemex the right to mine 56.1 million tons of sand and gravel in Soledad Canyon. Courts have rejected the city's claims in four lawsuits filed since 1999, which were lodged against Cemex and against government agencies for allowing the mine. County supervisors granted the mining permit under a consent decree in 2004.

In November, the city sought permission from the agency that oversees municipal boundary changes in Los Angeles County to annex the mine site, 906 acres of which Santa Clarita already owns.

Cemex's lawsuit said the application is ``inadequate under the California Environmental Quality Act, in part because the city failed to assess the impacts of how that annexation will affect future mining at the property,'' Shapiro said shortly after the filing.

The annexation is on hold while the city's application is being finalized.

The city's pending review says annexation would have no impact on the mineral and energy resources that lie underground, and although agreeing to prepare a full environmental report, Shapiro said it appears the city might not be intending to analyze how annexation would be affected by mining on the site.

Geralyn Skapik, an attorney representing the city, said Santa Clarita will do what's required.

``The city will prepare an environmental document that complies with the California Environmental Quality Act,'' Skapik said.

Shapiro questioned the motives for annexing the land, saying the city expressed its intent to use the annexation to restrict mining by way of potentially adopting restrictive city ordinances. To extend its boundaries toward the mining site, Santa Clarita successfully annexed the Stonecrest tracts in Canyon Country.

``We believe the annexation being proposed by the city is solely for the purpose of the city gaining greater influence and control over mining at the Soledad site,'' Shapiro said. ``The city, in encouraging support for the Stonecrest annexation, a necessary landbridge to the Soledad annexation ... made clear its intentions to use the Soledad annexation as a means of restricting mining at the Soledad property.''

He said even after the report's revision, Cemex would still strongly oppose the annexation because the company believes the boundary change is being sought for an inappropriate purpose, Shapiro said.

``Annexation is not an appropriate tool for a city to use to oppose a project,'' he said.

Skapik noted that the city owns the surface property and would like the land within its borders.

The Stonecrest neighborhood lies about a mile from the proposed mine, and the city's successful push for annexation laid the groundwork for annexing the property above the mine.

The city has spent nearly $7 million battling the project, and on Tuesday, the Santa Clarita City Council was asked to approve $800,000 for legal costs, public outreach, legislative advocacy and consultant fees through December.

In the past few weeks, the city has ramped up its campaign against the mine with billboards near the Antelope Valley Freeway that predict more traffic from trucks visiting the facility and broken windshields from gravel flying from trucks. Truckloads must be covered, a Cemex official said.

Cemex expects to begin operating the mine in 2008 and could mine about 70 million tons of sand and gravel over the next 20 years, with up to 600 trucks a day coming in and out.

Representatives from Cemex and the city were the only ones who attended a meeting hosted by the city Aug. 23 to gather public input on what environmental issues should be analyzed for the annexation.

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