MINE SCRUTINY EXTENDED RESIDENTS TO GET FURTHER OPPORTUNITY TO COMMENT ON DISPUTED PROJECT.

Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - An extended public comment period will be initiated to allow residents from Acton, Agua Dulce and Santa Clarita to submit concerns over a mining project across from the giant proposed Cemex quarry.

Officials with the U.S. Forest Service granted the public comment extension Friday after admitting that procedural errors were made in the notification process.

Angry community leaders said they learned this week of the mining plans on Soledad Canyon Road in the Angeles National Forest, five years after a permit had been filed with Los Angeles County and the forest service, and only after residents in Acton received informal letters.

Residents were asked to submit comments on the proposed project by May 17 - not enough time to understand the impacts of the plans, community leaders said.

Agua Dulce Town Council President Andy Fried said that, while the council has taken no position on the mine itself, the lack of notification was troublesome. He and Dick Morris, vice president of the Acton Town Council, wrote letters to forest officials expressing those concerns.

Friday's announcement of an extension and a scoping meeting was good news, he said.

``We are quite happy that the forest service has taken another look at the noticing procedures and the protocol surrounding it, and we appreciate their efforts to accommodate the community,'' Fried said. ``We are also appreciative that they are giving us more time, and there will be a full-fledged scoping meeting to take a look at the issues we're aware of and develop issues were not aware of.''

The project, planned by Pacific Industrial Minerals, includes mining 150,000 tons of a rock mineral per year within the Angeles over a 20-year period. Plans also include rebuilding a bridge over the Santa Clara River. The bridge was wiped out during this year's rainfalls and subsequent flooding.

``There's been some miscommunication between us and the operator,'' said Cid Morgan, district ranger for the Santa Clara-Mojave Ranger District of the Angeles. ``We're going to start the public comment period over, to give people 30 days.''

Morgan said the forest service also has been updating its mailing list, which ``we discovered was inadequate.''

The 320 acres of land to be mined is a registered claim and has been in operation since the late 1950s, Morgan said. Its owners, based in Arizona, have all the rights to mine there under the 1872 Mining Laws.

Under that law, the forest service can mitigate concerns but cannot stop mining, Morgan said.

There are a total of 293 mining claims within the Angeles National Forest, of which almost 100 are abandoned or defunct, according to 2004 data compiled by the Washington D.C.-based Environmental Working Group.

The 1872 Mining Law ``trumps all federal laws,'' said Dusty Horowitt, analyst for the group.

Only once has the Department of Interior stepped in to stop a mine, but the ruling was rescinded.

``It shows the lasting pre-eminence of this antiquated law in our federal lands policy,'' Horowitt said.

Valencia resident John Heter has leased the land from the Arizona- based owner for the last 20 years.

Heter also said Friday that the project is not a new one, but in 2000, the forest service requested an updated permit.

``It has been idle since 2000, when the old permit expired,'' Heter said. ``There's nothing new. We've already gone through all the approvals. We've been hauling ore out of there for years, but the new permit didn't get completed before the old one expired.''

He said he was surprised by the community's reaction, since he has been working with Los Angeles County to update the permits. He said he believes there was miscommunication.

County officials said Thursday they knew little about the project, but supported an extension of the public comment period.

``The reason this has been taking so long is because it's taken this long for the forest service to be happy with the description of the plan,'' Heter said.

Of the 320 acres of the mining claim, Heter plans to work on 17 acres.

He also said water would be hauled in to moisten the roads, so that dust would not rise.

The project site is about 10 miles east of Santa Clarita and seven miles from Acton. The quarry could generate as many as 25 truckloads per day, operating five days a week.

Susan Abram, [phone]

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com