QUESTIONS RAISED ON MINE SITE CONCERN OVER TOAD SPARKS CALL FOR REVIEW.

Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - A third public agency has requested that the Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Cemex mining project in Canyon Country be recirculated because of new information about the discovery of an endangered toad living on the site to be mined.

The city of Santa Clarita announced Friday that the state Department of Fish and Game is asking for more time to review the EIR, saying there is evidence that the endangered Southwestern arroyo toad exists on the site of the proposed massive quarry, where Cemex Inc. plans to mine 56.1 million tons of sand and gravel.

The state agency also said it needs time to review modifications to the project, and asks the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to hold off certifying the environmental report until the new information can be reviewed.

``The modification of the project to include up to five additional production wells and three additional monitoring wells, the discovery of the arroyo toad on the site and the subsequent ... new habitat protection plan constitutes significant new information requiring recirculation of the (environment report) prior to certification,'' said a letter from the Department of Fish and Game to the Los Angeles Department of Regional Planning.

In the past few months, the city has been successful in attracting statewide public agencies to re-evaluate the project. Late last year, the South Coast Air Quality Management District determined that, based on its own changing guidelines and a new methodology to detect cancer-causing agents in air, an existing draft of an environmental impact report must be recirculated.

But the city has lost its fight to have the federal government designate the 460-acre area as a critical habitat for the toad as well as for the endangered unarmored three-spine stickleback fish. Two years ago, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service determined the mine can't reasonably be expected to affect the arroyo toad.

City officials and more than 100 organizations are opposed to the project. The city has spent more than $2 million fighting plans for the mine, which was rejected in 2002 by the county Board of Supervisors.

That rejection is being challenged by Cemex in a separate case that contends that the supervisors had no right to reject the quarry.

Brian Mastin, a spokesman for Cemex Inc., said the state agency's request has no impact on the current lawsuit. ``It doesn't have any bearing on our position in the mediation process,'' Mastin said. ``We've been negotiating in good faith, following all the rules of the courts. Our belief is that the city's lobbying effort is to try to stop the settlement.''

But city officials are still claiming victory. ``With three public agencies now saying the same thing about Cemex's inaccurate and outdated EIR, it is getting harder to believe that Cemex can really complete the regulatory end of their agreement with the Bureau of Land Management for this project,'' City Manager Ken Pulskamp said in a statement. ``This is good news for the communities of Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley, plus the more than 100 organizations who have opposed the large scale mining project from the start.''

Susan Abram, [phone]

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com