Sierra Club challenges expansion of Cemex Quarry

The Sierra Club has submitted comments to the Draft EIR critical of expansion of the quarry supplying limestone to the cement plant in Davenport. The County of Santa Cruz has sent the report back for amending. It will be resubmitted as a second Draft EIR for public comment at a later date.

Global giant Cemex, based in Mexico, is the world's third largest producer of cement. The cement plant is connected by a 3-mile conveyor belt to a quarry in Bonny Doon. Cemex applied to the Santa Cruz County Planning Department for a 16-acre expansion of the quarry, and the draft EIR was released in August 2007. In response to the DEIR, Sierra Club cited many inadequacies of the document:

• Much of the concern centers around the effect the expansion would have on Liddell Springs, the source of up to 10% of the water supply for the City of Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz Water Department also expressed concern about the effect of the quarry expansion on the city water supply.

• Mitigations for the loss of habitat for the dusky-footed wood rat and the Federally "threatened" California red-legged frog are inadequate.

• The Club believes that the DEIR is deficient in that it does not address how the expansion would negatively affect adjacent open space known as Coast Dairies and Land, currently owned by the Trust for Public Land and slated to be handed over to the Bureau of Land Management this year.

• The DEIR does not address significant negative impacts of the noise, traffic, water, and air quality for nearby residents. Some potential significant quality of life impacts were simply ignored.

• Perhaps most importantly, the DEIR did not address the potential impacts the quarry expansion might have regarding AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act. Cement plants emit 5% of all carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, and are thus a key component of climate change. The Sierra Club asserts that AB32 must be considered not only in terms of the quarry expansion, but also that the scope of the DEIR be expanded to include carbon dioxide emissions from the cement plant itself.

• Alternatives to the expansion are inadequate and biased in favor of the expansion. Although alternatives were identified, they were dismissed, because they did not meet Cemex's objective of making as much money as possible as quickly as possible. Such reasoning is not permissible under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Astonishingly, Santa Cruz County has allowed Cemex separate operating permits for the cement plant and the quarry, in spite of their mutual dependency and even physical connection via the long conveyor belt that transports the limestone ore from the quarry to the plant.

The Ventana will keep readers informed as the proposed expansion wends it way through the CEQA process. The next step is for the Draft EIR to be reworked and recirculated for public comment.

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