Perspectives: Azusa Rock follows an Appalachian model
By Margaret Finlay and John Fasana
Posted: 02/20/2010 08:36:31 PM PST
God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.
- John Muir
In Duarte and in the San Gabriel Valley, we front the Angeles National Forest, host to over 3.2 million visitors each year. The Angeles National Forest, our country's second-most visited national forest, draws more visitors annually than Yellowstone National Park. Many of our residents learn to enjoy nature and environmental stewardship in our mountains without ever having an opportunity to visit a national park. Imagine your Yosemite experience if you entered through a rock quarry. Although it is hard to imagine, this is our mountain experience. To visit Fish Canyon Falls in Duarte, the most beautiful waterfall in the forest, you must be escorted through the environmental wasteland that has been created by Vulcan.
Vulcan's Azusa Rock expansion rests on the faulty premise that our region's economic welfare and jobs depend solely on aggregate from Azusa Rock. Destroying our natural assets will harm the local economy. Mountaintop mining and poverty go hand-in-hand in Appalachia. After resources are mined, the companies pull out, leaving a ruined landscape and economic decline for those who remain. The companies have not been held accountable for reclaiming the mining sites. That is why the EPA recently called for a crackdown on mountaintop mining. Aggregate can be mined elsewhere in less-populated areas that will not destroy the landscape and economies of our communities. Just as no one would think of harvesting our coastal redwoods for patio furniture, we should not squander an irreplaceable natural asset for pavement.
Vulcan says that the project is a "swap," not an expansion, because it includes cessation of mining on the easternmost 80 acres of its site in exchange for mining 80 acres on the west side of Fish Canyon, immediately adjacent to Duarte. But the facts do not lie. Over 25 percent of the east 80 acres are already disturbed, so about 60 acres will be "preserved" while 80 new undisturbed acres to the west will be destroyed. By any measure, that is an expansion, not a swap.
Azusa has been here before. In 1988, the Azusa Planning Commission voted to revoke the Azusa Rock, Vulcan's predecessor, conditional use permit. They succeeded in getting the Azusa City Council to ignore the foresight of its Planning Commission and approve the mining project that resulted in the current 40-foot "Mayan" steps.
Following the Appalachia model, Vulcan got the benefits without paying the environmental costs and damages that are incurred by most of the San Gabriel Valley communities. Azusa, however, obtained benefit through its mining tax on Vulcan's operations. It stands to gain over $20 million in future general fund revenues from that tax between now and 2038.
For as bad as the decision was in 1988, the new plan in 2010 is worse. This is not surprising because the 2010 scheme was hatched under Vulcan's threat of litigation against Azusa. The process is so contaminated by Vulcan's threats that 51 of 53 "appendices" to the EIR for the project were prepared for or furnished by Vulcan.
Vulcan's pitch, to which Azusa falls prey, is that Vulcan will improve the reclamation of the hillside scars through the use of "micro-benching." Additionally, it will stop mining near residents in Azusa, and will sign a "development agreement" that provides more money to Azusa. In exchange, Vulcan gets the right to mine even closer to residents in Duarte for the next 27 years. From Vulcan's perspective, the proposal is understandable. Vulcan is a for-profit business. It will have easier access to more and better material.
From Duarte's perspective, and that of the rest of the San Gabriel Valley, the plan is offensive and objectionable. It forces others to bear the environmental and economic consequences of Vulcan's expansion. For thousands of residents, a natural hillside will have 600 feet dynamited off the top. According to Azusa's EIR, mining production will increase 450 percent, and filth and noise will escalate for the next 27 years. Between now and 2038, instead of mining the remaining unmined 80acres to the east, 1.25 miles from the nearest Azusa residents, Vulcan proposes to mine just 0.6 of a mile from hundreds of Duarte homes and an elementary school, in Duarte.
The project is an irretrievable loss for the environment. In addition to aesthetic blight, increased noise and decreased air quality, important animal and plant habitats will be destroyed. Azusa, relying on Vulcan's studies, claims the habitat destruction will be "minimal" because the site was surveyed with binoculars. This ridiculous assertion is symptomatic of the entire expansion plan.
Vulcan has the power to improve the blight caused by its mining operations without ruining 80 additional acres. Vulcan estimates the cost of micro-benching reclamation at $2.3 million. There are serious doubts about whether micro-benching works at all. Rather than accepting more promises that will not be kept, Vulcan should first prove to the San Gabriel Valley that it could restore the existing shoddy reclamation on the east side before being granted the opportunity to hang a new scar on the mountain.
Why not have Azusa and Duarte work together to achieve a solution where Vulcan isn't the only massive winner in this debate? Duarte and Azusa are siblings in the municipal family of the San Gabriel Valley. There is a bully out there trying to divide and conquer our decent family communities. As cities, we all want what is best for our communities. Degraded hillsides, foul unhealthful air and limited access to our mountains are what we will be leaving our children if this current Vulcan expansion plan is approved.
Remember, we don't inherit this land from our parents; we borrow it from our children.
Margaret Finlay is Duarte's mayor, John Fasana is a councilman.
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