About the Cemex Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mine
- The project is a 56.1 million ton sand and gravel surface mining operation proposed by Cemex Inc. for Soledad Canyon.
- The project would be located approximately a mile and a half from the City of Santa Clarita’s border. The area around the Santa Clara River is designated as Los Angeles County’s Significant Ecological Area No. 23.
- The project would ultimately add up to 1,164 large truck trips every day to Los Angeles area freeways.
- The project will put 18-wheelers and other trucks onto local freeways every one and a half to two minutes, 24 hours a day.
- The project will cause state air quality standards for particulate emissions to be exceeded by approximately two times, and cause the state standard for nitrogen dioxides to be exceeded by approximately 1.2 to 1.5 times.
- Particulates released from the Cemex mine will cause significant amounts of dust and emissions to be released into the air, which will negatively impact those with breathing issues, especially children and seniors.
- The project would excavate, stockpile, crush and process sand and gravel 17 hours per day Monday through Saturday.
- In February 2007, Cemex and the City of Santa Clarita entered into a compromise to work on federal legislation to cancel Cemex’s federal lease to mine the 56.1 million tons of sand and gravel from Soledad Canyon and limit future mining to historic levels or eliminate mining on that site in totality.
- Impact will become more severe as more mining is potentially added to the Soledad Canyon corridor concurrent with the expected growth in the Santa Clarita Valley.
History of the Soledad Canyon Mining Proposal
Click here to download a pdf of a Fall 2003 special edition of the Agua Dulce/Acton Country Journal providing information on the history and potential impacts of the Soledad Canyon mining proposal.
Supporting S. 759: SAFE’s Efforts in 2012
In 2012, our efforts included a letter writing and petition campaign in support of Senate Bill 759 by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. No action was taken on the bill, but dozens of letters and the petition bearing more than 3,500 signatures were delivered to Sen. Boxer and other legislative leaders in February 2013 in the hopes that this strong show of support would aid in the passage of similar legislation in 2013.
City of Santa Clarita’s informational video about the 2012 legislation: