City of Santa Clarita, CA

As a 45 year resident of Santa Clarita I am very opposed to the increase in pollution and traffic the increase of the mining operations would bring.

We are already affected by the increased air pollution and the further increase of 1,164 trucks every day on the freeway would severely impact the air quality with 2 times the emissions we have now. The projected 1600% increase truck trips would dramatically impact traffic on the already congested 14 Freeway.

So many people would be negatively affected by this. The CEMEX people are notorious for violating limits in other areas and we don't want that to happen here where we live.

I received your letter of 17 August 2006 and the promise to be a positive force in the Soledad Canyon area and the offer to support the community’s interest. That is the first and only potentially positive response I have heard from CEMEX in the years this project has been proposed. All the previous responses from CEMEX, and your predecessor Transit Mix, have been of the nature, we are coming and you can’t stop us. I truly hope you are sincere in your desire to work with the community. If there is one area where you can make a positive contribution, it is to work with the City of Santa Clarita. For years the City of Santa Clarita has tried to represent the 200,000 people who will be impacted by the mine, only to be blocked by CEMEX legal actions. If you intend to be a good neighbor, you must work with the elected government of the people whose lives you will be changing, and you must be willing to make changes that will reduce the most severe negative impacts of the mine project.

There are several areas of concern for the nearby residents of the mine project. In my opinion the area of most concern is air quality since the excavation and eventual daily explosions will throw tons of fine particulate matter into the air. Persons with lung conditions will be severely affected. Those in good health will be exposed to unhealthy air. Children in schools only a few miles from the mine have no option but to breathe the contaminated air that is created. The amount of dust will affect visibility throughout the Santa Clarita valley. If CEMEX truly cares about the existing community they will immediately work with the City officials to minimize these harmful and unhealthful conditions that will be created by the mine.

We are not asking that you improve the quality of life in Santa Clarita as your letter promises, just that you do not degrade the existing quality. If you are not a good neighbor, if you rely on legal roadblocks, if you hide behind contracts with people who do not live in Santa Clarita, residents will be forced to leave Santa Clarita for health reasons, property values will drop, and billions of dollars will be lost to the local community. When this occurs, the community will be changed forever.

Again, let me say that the one thing that you can to do live up to your paper promises, is to work with the City of Santa Clarita. If you truly value community involvement, listen to the City’s concerns, acknowledge that there are negative impacts and work with the City to minimize them. There may not be one person in Santa Clarita who welcomes you. So before you thank us for allowing you to become part of the community, why don’t you make an effort to work with the community by contacting the City of Santa Clarita and promise to work as a team.

From: Bob B.
To: soledad.usfacts@cemex.com
Cc: Toi Chisom; Bob Kellar; Laurene Weste
Subject: Soledad Canyon Mine

Thank you for your letter and brochure on CEMEX and the efforts to expand mining in the Soledad Canyon area. Please be aware that I live in the immediate neighborhood of the proposed mine, and that there is nothing you can say to convince me that the mine would be good for the community. There is no evidence that any profits derived or products produced will flow back to Santa Clarita or the infra-structure surrounding it. All of the issues and effects of the project have been discussed many times at meetings and committees I have attended. The general consensus is that it cannot be good for us.

Please remove me from your mailing list, and do not send any additional information on your project. I will not be convinced that CEMEX can become the 'good neighbor' you describe, because the expectations of the community would far outstrip the possible profits of the project. I believe there are too many other sites that can be utilized to meet the demands of our mined products needs, and that CEMEX should abandon the Soledad Canyon idea. It is just too close to many thriving communities!

My husband and I received a very expensive letter and brochure from Cemex yesterday, in the mail. The letter promised that Cemex "takes care of the communities in which they operate". My husband and I saw this for what it was, an attempt to pacify the community, we also know better than to believe this ad. If you have not seen this yet I will gladly fax you a copy of mine.

Thanks for fighting this air polluting, street clogging monster.

Sincerely,
Jeanine H.

From: Suzy Hermann
Subject: support to defeat Cemex

This confounded CEMEX mine idea is terrible.
They will trash our, what ever is now left of it, river.
They will trash our roads.
They will trash our air.
They will trash our lives.

And they have the gall to send out misleading mailings.
Do they think we are dumb enough to fall for their lies?

Thank you for your vigilance to fight this mega mine. I used to work by the concrete station around Tuxford Street. in the town of Sun Valley. What a mess and that is just a small cement plant. I also had to drive by the gravel pit off of Grimes Canyon that leads into Fillmore. What a disgusting mess. Thank you again for your help.

Hi,
Hope the City of Santa Clarita is aware that Cemex has sent out a propaganda mailer to the residents of Santa Clarita within the past couple of months. We live in Canyon Country and received this mailer a few weeks ago to which we found very insulting! Cemex claims they care & want to blend with the surrounding community, what a load of horse pucky! Do they think the good folks of Santa Clarita are blissfully unaware of what they are trying to do? Very infuriating. If they cared they would voluntarily adhere to the City of Santa Clarita's demands, fork up some compensation money to the city and it's residents that they have impacted in a negative way (i.e.. health problems, damage to the road & vehicles, etc...) to make amends, and offer "opt-out" info so we can be removed from their mailing list. I wish we had saved the mailer to forward on to you, but we were so angry that we ripped it up and through it in the recycling bin.

As a resident of the County (San Francisquito Canyon) and also a private well owner and President of the Santa Clarita Valley Well Owners Association the members of our Association are very concerned about the effects of this mega-mine's operations on the quantity and quality of the water in the Santa Clara River and the Saugus Formation. The environmental record of companies in Mexico is abysmal and it is doubtful they will do anything more than they are forced to in controlling water usage and pollution. All of those trucks travelling into the watershed will put pollutants into the groundwater. This is one of the reasons there are already rules and regulations about new (dirt) streets across our area's streambeds. They will have to use water to keep the dust down and then it will be transported out of our valley in their trucks. Might not seem like much but over the long haul it will be a lot. We are not in any position to be a water exporting community!

Since a kid, I have been one of your biggest movie fans seeing every one of your films and now I am proud to support you with all my votes! Congratulations on another Victory!! Governator I believe that this proposed Cemex mega mine in our State of California, and in particular to our local community "village" in Santa Clarita is a very bad idea. As much as I support growth and development in our State's economy, the consequences of this mine are much too severe. Already our air quality is suffering and our roads are tremendously over crowded. Please Governator help prevent this foreign company from coming into our back yards and causing our environment to be damaged. The impact of such a mega mine will be devastating and it will cause health problems from breathing air contaminated with the mines particulate matter. All of us will be effected, from our young to our elderly and as we all know we cannot contain or isolate poor air quality to just one location. The particulate matter created into the air will be carried and spread across our entire State effecting millions of citizens in our State. Additionally, over a thousand 18 wheeler trucks daily will be used to transport the mines rocks and gravel contributing to more air pollution and congestion our already over crowded highways. Please Governator I kindly request you consider preventing this mega mine from being created.