LOCKYER IN MINE BATTLE ATTORNEY GENERAL FILES AMICUS BRIEF.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Attorney General Bill Lockyer has agreed to participate in the federal court battle over a massive sand-and-gravel mine in Canyon Country at the request of city and county officials.

Santa Clarita City Council and 5th District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich are hopeful Lockyer can convince U.S. District Court Judge Dickran Tevrizian to block Cemex Inc. from mining 56.1 million tons of aggregate from the Soledad Canyon hillside.

``This case raises important issues with respect to the authority of local, and by implication, state, governments to (ensure) that mining and other activities do not harm the environment,'' Lockyer wrote in a letter to Antonovich dated Dec. 5.

Santa Clarita officials have spent almost $2 million fighting the massive mine, which they contend will have a devastating impact on north Los Angeles County by polluting the air, choking area roads and freeways with traffic and threatening the area's water supply.

``(The attorney general's action) validates the community's fight against (Cemex), which has consistently refused to cooperate with the residents who will be impacted by this mine,'' Antonovich said.

Cemex spokesman Brian Mastin declined to comment on Lockyer's action.

Lockyer will file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting arguments by county lawyers that the Board of Supervisors properly followed state law in rejecting Cemex's application for a surface mining permit after the mining company refused to complete an additional traffic study.

While city officials praised Lockyer's action, they called on the attorney general to go a step further and seek to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of the county.

``We're pleased but not satisfied,'' said Santa Clarita Planning Director Jeff Lambert. ``We'd like to see the attorney general make a stronger statement and get directly involved in the case.''

City officials are concerned that Tevrizian is preparing to rule in favor of the mining company, perhaps as early as next month. Settlement negotiations are also ongoing, company officials have said.

Tevrizian has repeatedly ruled against the county and Santa Clarita, and he has indicated his sympathy for Cemex's argument that county officials inappropriately used the years-long environmental review process as a tool to delay and interfere with the federal government's approval of the mining plan.

In addition, Tevrizian allowed the federal government to intervene in the case on behalf of Cemex in order to defend the two 10-year contracts awarded to the company and assert the supremacy of federal law.

Cemex will pay the federal Bureau of Land Management $28 million for the right to mine 460 acres south of the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway in between Soledad Canyon Road and Agua Dulce Canyon Road.