Our View: Moving mining dust around
Posted: 01/28/2009 06:23:09 PM PST
RESIDENTS of Duarte and Azusa are looking for straight answers regarding a plan to shift mining in San Gabriel Canyon from its current site to the west.
The kind of doubletalk coming from Vulcan Materials, owners and operators of the Azusa Rock Quarry, makes it sound as if more mining closer to Duarte's exclusive neighborhoods is purely a good thing. It remains to be seen whether Azusa Rock's infamous mining scars - known as the Mayan Steps - won't be created on the west side of the canyon as well - a matching pair. Vulcan says that tearing away at the mountain's gentler slopes makes mining easier and that will make the "reclamation" better - more likely that means less ugly.
There are too many questions left unanswered when the information is being provided by Vulcan. Questions such as: How will taking the low-hanging fruit that is rock aggregate benefit the 300,000 or so San Gabriel Valley residents who live near their mining operations? Will they see more or less dust on their cars, on their patio furniture, in their home heating/AC ducts? Vulcan says this is not an expansion, but a shift in operations. Can this be so? And why now, when other experts say demand for aggregate used in construction is down 60 percent? Are the answers contained in a four-inch document written by Vulcan left on the doorstep of Azusa City Hall?
Even more troublesome is the situation that the city of Duarte and its residents find themselves in. The city is powerless.
Despite having the biggest dog in the fight, it is essentially muzzled. This decision will be made by the Azusa City Council.
Leaving such momentous decisions that will affect all the 2.1 million San Gabriel Valley residents up to Azusa is also a deep concern. Remember, Azusa approved the original mining plan that resulted in a gash in the San Gabriel Mountains the size of Mount Rushmore for every Valley resident to see. When Azusa approved this, did it consult with us about Valley residents' property values, or with real estate agents?
And then there is a matter of the fine dust that is launched into the air from mining operations such as Azusa Rock's, which can result in an increase in lung disease and premature deaths caused by particulate matter in the air at concentrations that exceed federal safety levels. Add to that the estimated 1 million diesel-belching truck trips per year attributed to all mining operations in our Valley.
The enormity of this issue, and the unfairness of allowing a single city not really affected to decide an issue that directly affects a neighboring city, prompts us to call for a new way of deciding this issue.
We suggest a neutral state agency come in and hold public hearings on the Vulcan proposal. Whether it be the State Mining and Geology Board or the California Environmental Protection Agency, the residents needs an unbiased source and greater access to unbiased reports.
All San Gabriel Valley residents should start demanding answers at an information hearing being held by Vulcan and its big-gun public relations agency this Saturday, at the Azusa Women's Club, 1003 N. Azusa Ave. at 10 a.m.
The Valley deserves more than a marketing campaign from a mining company carving up the mountains to explain this issue. It needs straight answers.
All information and images provided by Save Our Canyon
(626) 629-8335
Send Page
