[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 2, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S946]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. BOXER:
  S. 3057. A bill to provide to the Secretary of the Interior a 
mechanism to cancel contracts for the sale of materials CA-20139 and 
CA-22901, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce the Soledad 
Canyon High Desert, California Public Lands Conservation and Management 
Act of 2010. This bill would resolve a twenty-year-old mining dispute 
between the City of Santa Clarita and CEMEX USA, and have numerous 
other benefits for communities in Los Angeles and San Bernardino 
Counties, CA.
  In 1990, the Bureau of Land Management awarded CEMEX two 10-year 
consecutive contracts to extract 56 million tons of sand and gravel 
from a site in Soledad Canyon. The City of Santa Clarita strongly 
opposed CEMEX's expansion of mining in this area. After 2 decades of 
conflict and nearly a decade of litigation, the two parties announced a 
truce in early 2007, and started working out an agreement.
  This legislation would implement the terms of that agreement. It 
would require the Secretary of the Interior to cancel CEMEX's mining 
contracts in Soledad Canyon and prohibit future mining at this site. 
The BLM would sell lands near Victorville, CA, that are currently on 
its disposal list, and would use the proceeds to compensate CEMEX for 
the cancellation of its mining contracts. The City of Victorville and 
County of San Bernardino would have the right of first refusal to 
purchase many of these parcels, which would help satisfy their future 
development needs. Some of these funds would also go towards the 
purchase of environmentally-sensitive lands in Southern California.
  My legislation would settle a twenty-year-old dispute to all parties' 
satisfaction, complement future development plans in Southern 
California, help secure important lands for conservation, and do all of 
this without any cost to taxpayers. That is why it has already won the 
support of a diverse group of interests, including the City of Santa 
Clarita, CEMEX, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and the Sierra 
Club.
  I have worked with Representative Buck McKeon in introducing this 
measure and look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to 
secure its passage.
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