CITY: TOAD STILL IN DANGER.Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA - A planned sand and gravel mine will affect the endangered southwestern arroyo toad despite new protections added by the federal government, a Santa Clarita representative said Friday. City officials are ``very disappointed'' that a federal agency found that Transit Mixed Concrete's proposed 56.1-million-ton mine in Soledad Canyon poses no threat to the endangered amphibian and other threatened species, said Stacy Miller, the city's intergovernmental relations officer. ``It's obvious that the contracts with Transit Mixed Concrete are more important to the Bureau of Land Management than the environment and the residents of Santa Clarita,'' Miller said. The city's own environmental documents show that the mine will impact the environment of the Santa Clarita Valley The Santa Clarita Valley is the valley of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. It stretches through Los Angeles County and Ventura County. Its main population center is the city of Santa Clarita. The valley was part of the 48,612-acre (19,672. and the Santa Clara River Santa Clara River may refer to:
``It's disheartening dis·heart·en tr.v. dis·heart·ened, dis·heart·en·ing, dis·heart·ens To shake or destroy the courage or resolution of; dispirit. See Synonyms at discourage. to us and the community to be told over and over again that our concerns don't matter,'' Miller said. ``It's like knocking your head up against a brick wall.'' A biological opinion issued Thursday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that because few arroyo toads have been found in the area of the mine, the service expects ``few arroyo toads are likely to be killed or injured'' by the gravel pit, and that a monitoring program and other measures will further reduce the mortality rate. Fish and Wildlife officials could not be reached for comment late Friday. Miller said city officials would decide in the next few weeks whether to refile a lawsuit against the BLM BLM n abbr (US) (= Bureau of Land Management) → les domaines , the lead agency overseeing the mine, that was withdrawn earlier this year when the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to study the mine's impact on the toad. The previous suit claimed that the bureau violated both federal law and the Endangered Species Act The federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) (16 U.S.C.A. §§ 1531 et seq.) was enacted to protect animal and plant species from extinction by preserving the ecosystems in which they survive and by providing programs for their conservation. by approving TMC's plan. The Azusa-based company will pay the BLM $28 million for the right to mine the 460 acres over the next 20 years, under terms of the lease. TMC TMC Technology Marketing Corporation (Norwalk, Connecticut) TMC Texas Medical Center (Houston, TX) TMC Traffic Message Channel TMC The Movie Channel TMC Traffic Management Center representatives praised the biological opinion, saying it was a thorough review of all the issues relating to the toad. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is the five member governing board of Los Angeles County, California. Members of the board of supervisors are elected by district, the current members as of April 2006 are:
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