No more CEMEX: It’s time for San Joaquin River gravel mining operations to end | Opinion

The CEMEX quarry needs to go.

On July 18, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a three-year extension of CEMEX USA’s quarry operating permits along the San Joaquin River north of Fresno (though CEMEX had asked for a four-year extension). The board’s vote was unanimous.

The city of Fresno officially objected to the extension application because it is based on analyses dating from the mid-1980s, while affected areas of the city and county have substantially changed in the past four decades. The city is obviously concerned about the negative impacts that the county’s approval decision will have on Fresno and its residents.

During that July board meeting, Sharon Weaver, executive director at San Joaquin River Parkway & Conservation Trust Inc., reportedly requested that the City of Fresno’s objection to the application be upheld. It should be noted that the quarry operates on land along the river that the Conservation trust wants to incorporate into the San Joaquin River Parkway.

A few days after the board’s vote, on July 21, I noticed an informal poll being taken by The Business Journal asking the following question:

“Should CEMEX continue mining gravel at its Rockfield quarry for three more years before updating its (environmental impact report)?”

About 233 people responded. I was startled to note that more than 86% of respondents said “no” to this question. I would think readers of The Business Journal would be generally pro-business, so I take this as a conservative representation of public sentiment on the CEMEX issue.

It seems reasonable to think that most people in Fresno — as well as residents in unincorporated areas north of town — would strongly object to the quarry continuing operations. Who wants dozens of gravel-carrying big rigs traveling with them every day as they drive into and out of Fresno to work, shop or visit Millerton Lake or points beyond?

This truck traffic is more than annoying, it is polluting and potentially dangerous.

But all of this is merely a warm-up to the real battle coming up, which involves CEMEX’s application to change its operations from gravel harvesting to hard-rock mining. The plans include blasting the rock down to a depth of 600 feet. CEMEX says the rock is needed to meet road and structure construction needs in the county based on growth projections (that is to say sprawl).

According to Fresno Bee columnist Marek Warszawski’s July 27 column, the argument that the CEMEX operation is necessary to pave the county’s existing and projected roads is misleading, at best. It turns out that the county does not have a contract to purchase gravel from CEMEX for road construction.

The column also points out that, according to CEMEX, the company provides 28% of the gravel aggregate needed for local residential construction (that is to say sprawl).

More than this, past political decisions have set in motion the incorporation of the local river and its adjacent lands into the San Joaquin River Parkway. Whatever anyone believes about the relative merits of ongoing sprawl, this fact remains.

One would be forgiven for feeling baffled that we are even discussing approving CEMEX’s continuing operations, never mind the company’s plans to expand into hard-rock mining. How can anyone think that such an operation is compatible with the goal of restoring our beleaguered river and its shores to something resembling its natural state for the enjoyment of the general public?

Given that the supervisors approved the extension application over the objections of the City of Fresno, the Parkway caretaker and (perhaps) the local residents, what can those who object do?

A first step would be to encourage the City of Fresno to move forward with a lawsuit against the county to stop the supervisors from approving any more CEMEX applications. It seems logical that a new and updated environmental impact report is necessary, and that such a report would show how damaging CEMEX is to the Parkway and county residents.

It’s time for CEMEX’s San Joaquin River operations to end.

Ken Wall is a retired banker and bank regulator, and is currently a volunteer team leader with Citizens Climate Lobby Fresno.