For Release: Monday, July 8, 2002
Contact: Jan Bedrosian (916) 978-4616 or John Dearing (916) 978-4622
CA-SO-06-02
Court Document links below

U.S. Seeks to Intervene in CEMEX v. Los Angeles County Suit on Sand and Gravel Project

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), on behalf of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), today filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Central District, California, in Los Angeles, regarding Los Angeles County's recent denial of a state permit for a sand and gravel project involving federally owned minerals in Soledad Canyon, northeast of Los Angeles, California.

The federal government's intervention is in support of the BLM's sand and gravel contracts with CEMEX, Inc., (formerly Transit Mixed Concrete, Inc.) which was awarded the contracts by BLM in 1990. The filing is based on the legal doctrine of "preemption" which basically means that the county, while it can require reasonable mitigation measures for a federally-approved project, does not have authority to unreasonably delay or deny the project. BLM approved the project in August 2000 and that decision was upheld by the DOI's Interior Board of Land Appeals in January 2002.

The federal contracts were awarded by competitive bid in 1990, and authorized the mining of 56 million tons of sand and gravel over a 20-year period for a minimum payment of $28 million. The mine site covers 460 acres in Soledad Canyon, off Highway 14 about 25 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. The area has been mined for sand and gravel since the 1960s and was classified by the state in 1987 as a "regionally significant construction aggregate resource area."

After extensive environmental reviews, BLM approved the project with numerous mitigation measures, including that the company obtain a state environmental review permit. CEMEX applied for such a permit in May 1991. CEMEX's permit application was denied by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in April 2002.

CEMEX filed suit in January 2002 alleging unnecessary delay by the county and amended that suit in May 2002 based upon the denial. In today's filing by the DOJ, the federal government asks the court to allow it to join in that suit against the county.

CEMEX also appealed the denial to the state of California's Mining & Geology Board. The board ruled in May 2002 that it was "preempted from reviewing the appeal" due to the fact that the matter was in federal District Court. However, in its ruling, the board's chairman also stated, "the public record demonstrates delay and indecision by Los Angeles County in its processing of the surface mining application. The county's conduct in this area is surprising given the surface mining infrastructure already developed and surface mining history of the mineral lands in question, and given that the state, and the county through its mineral resource
management policies incorporated into its general plan, sought since 15 years ago to protect these identified important mineral resources from permanent loss due to encroaching urbanization."

The federal government's filing asks the court to consider its motion to intervene at a hearing already scheduled in the case on July 22, 2002.

-BLM-

Court Documents:

U.S. Motion to Intervene (1 mb, PDF file, requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

U.S. Complaint-In-Intervention (630 k, PDF file, requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)