CITY MAY GIVE MINE A 2ND LOOK; RESIDENTS OPPOSE PLAN TO TAKE GRAVEL FROM SOLEDAD CANYON.

Byline: Jason Takenouchi Daily News Staff Writer

Support is running high for a City Council proposal to re-examine a planned 83 million-ton mining operation in Soledad Canyon.

The Transit Mixed Concrete Co. project would span 20 years and extract about 56 million tons of sand and gravel aggregates, a key ingredient to construction projects.

But the plan has drawn opposition from residents and community groups over air, noise and other environmental impacts. The City Council will vote Tuesday on whether to re-examine the project's potential effects.

``There are a lot of groups out there that want the city and the county to do some research,'' Mayor Jo Anne Darcy said Friday. ``We need to get a position on it and spend some money on a consultant.''

If approved by the City Council Tuesday, the proposal will:

Allocate $50,000 to hire lobbyists, scientists and legal specialists to further evaluate the project's environmental impact report.

Ask for a meeting with U.S. Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, to discuss the project's impact on Santa Clarita.

Initiate a study of similar mining projects or operations in the area and the impact of those facilities.

The last item would include a 1,183-acre mining proposal just east of the Transit Mixed site. That project, which county planners said has been on hold, could be much larger than the Transit Mixed plan.

The City Council vote Tuesday will not set an official city position on the Transit Mixed proposal, but a staff analysis of the project recently called its environmental report inadequate and said it ``understates the range of impacts'' associated with the proposal.

Councilwoman Laurene Weste said there were ``gaping holes in that environmental impact report.''

Brian Mastin, spokesman for Azusa-based Transit Mixed, said the company welcomes a public review of the documents, but he insisted the environmental report is complete.

``I think it's a very thorough environmental impact report,'' Mastin said. ``Those documents are extensive and are the product of great care.''

If approved in its current form, the Transit Mixed project would include a 460-acre gravel mining operation and cement batch plant on 40 acres. The land would eventually yield about 56 million tons of Portland Cement Concrete aggregates, a key ingredient for freeways, houses and other construction projects.

The company also would pay about $28 million in royalties to federal, state and local governments.

Mastin estimated that about half the aggregates would feed San Fernando Valley development; the other half would support the Santa Clarita Valley's explosive growth.

The site is classified as a significant resource area for aggregates, and the Bureau of Land Management estimates the region around the Transit Mixed project contains an additional 200 million tons of the material.

But the mining plan could still face a tough sell, especially considering the scores of residents who live within miles of the site.

Weste compared the project and other nearby mining plans to past efforts to bring landfills in the Santa Clarita Valley.

``We went from them bringing it in to them taking it out,'' Weste said. ``Santa Clarita seems to be this ripe, wonderful little valley with all these special places that everyone wants to extort these benefits from.''

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Map

MAP: (Ran in SAC Edition only) Project site