CITY COUNCIL WILL SUE TO SAVE ENDANGERED SPECIES.Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA - The City Council voted this week to sue the federal government, claiming that the Bureau of Land Management's approval of a sand and gravel mine in Soledad Canyon violates 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. . Council members also unanimously agreed on Monday to ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate the entire site of Transit Mixed Concrete's 56.1-million-ton mine as critical habitat for the endangered Southwestern arroyo toad. Santa Clarita officials believe the mine will harm several endangered and threatened plants and animals Plants and Animals are a Canadian indie-rock band from Montreal, comprised of guitarist-vocalists Warren Spicer and Nic Basque, and drummer-vocalist Matthew Woodley.[1] They are signed to Secret City Records. , including the toad, the unarmored three-spined stickleback stickleback, common name for members of the family Gasterosteidae, small fishes, widely distributed in both fresh- and saltwaters of the Northern Hemisphere. Sticklebacks range from 1 1-2 to 4 in. (3. and the spineflower. In July, the council withdrew its lawsuit alleging a violation of the Endangered Species Act, when the BLM BLM n abbr (US) (= Bureau of Land Management) → les domaines agreed to study the proposed mine's impact on the arroyo toad after some of the endangered amphibians amphibians members of the animal class Amphibia. Includes frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and cecilians all capable of living on land or in water. were found nearby in shallow breeding pools. City officials said at the time that they expected the study to prompt a more thorough re-evaluation of the entire mine. Yet in a biological opinion released earlier this month, the Fish and Wildlife Service found that the mine posed no jeopardy to the toad. ``The biological opinion was simply inadequate,'' said City Attorney Carl Newton. In another lawsuit against the BLM, the City Council said the bureau violated federal administrative law when it approved the mine more than a year ago. The city's formal appeal of the mine is pending. Both of this week's actions are intended to prevent Azusa-based 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 from mining the Soledad Canyon hillside. While Santa Clarita officials and residents believe the mine will have a negative impact on the Santa Clarita Valley's environment, company representatives say most people will not even know it is there. 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:
On Tuesday, the county planning staff rejected most of the mitigation measures proposed by Santa Clarita and other mine opponents, saying these would make the mine unprofitable for TMC, which expects to pay the BLM $28 million over the 20-year life of the mine for the rights to the land. |
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