Lawyers for the longstanding lawsuit against Cemex, a mining company with rights to extract 56 million tons of gravel from Soledad Canyon, have been ordered to argue their case next month in front of the California Court of Appeal.
Online notice was sent Tuesday morning to request a Nov. 20 hearing for Cemex’s oral arguments on why the State Water Board was wrong to deny the company an appeal of its decision to re-notice its application for water rights.
In its past filings, Cemex has described the water board’s ruling as consequential for the future of its investment in the region, and the need to fulfill the future demand for aggregate expected for the region’s development, namely the infrastructure for about 10,000 more homes in the Santa Clarita Valley alone.
The State Water Resources Control Board decided in 2023 that it would re-notice Cemex’s more-than-30-year-old application seeking water rights for the hundreds of acre-feet needed for mining operations.
The mining company is seeking permission to use about 322 acre-feet of water each year, which is the average annual amount needed for about 650 homes, based on average usage levels.
“The centerpiece of the board’s defense is its ‘finality’ argument — that the decisions to re-notice and deny reconsideration cannot be reviewed until some future, final action by the board on the application,” according to the latest brief. “But that position is both textually and logically indefensible. The Water Code expressly provides for judicial review of not just ‘decisions,’ but also ‘orders’ of the board, including those issued by its officers and employees.”
The State Water Board made the re-noticing decision amid political pressure against the board, spurred by bills from former state Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, and Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, that sought to mandate a re-noticing of any applications more than 30 years old.
Their bill specifically targeted Cemex, which also was mentioned in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto letter. Newsom stated he didn’t need to sign the bill because the State Water Board said it was noticing the application. And then Cemex sued to fight the re-noticing.
The State Water Board said its decision to re-notice the application was an administrative one and therefore not subject to appeal, and Cemex made the opposite argument in its lawsuit.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge upheld that decision, which prompted the current appeal.
Written briefs were filed in August, with the appellate court requesting oral arguments Nov. 20.
Masis Hagobian, intergovernmental relations officer for the city of Santa Clarita, has been monitoring the situation on behalf of the city, which is one of the largest stakeholders impacted by the mine.
The city has fought to stop the Cemex mine decades, as the city has expressed numerous concerns regarding potential environmental pollution, traffic and water-quality impacts that could come from a 56-million-ton sand-and-gravel mine just east of its borders.
The city also has worked to develop a green belt of open space around the land where Los Angeles County approved a mining site more than three decades ago.
Cemex has said that a re-noticing period would cost the business millions in new environmental studies that could be forced in a new review for permissions that have already been given.
Opponents, including the city of Santa Clarita, have said there’s been so much change to the region over the past 30 years that there’s no way a mine should be authorized.
