Broken Promises by the Mining Company
The 1988 reclamation plan says it was designed to produce
“contours that will resemble natural topography and revegetation to
re-establish a biotic community similar to that which existed prior
to initiation of quarry operations.” As we all know, this promise
has never been fulfilled. Now Vulcan wants us to believe
that they can do better, saying, “revegetation with native plant
species is intended to create finished slopes more closely
resembling natural slopes to reduce existing and future visual
impacts.” Vulcan has broken their past promises, and we think they
will continue to break the new promises. We want Vulcan to prove
what they can successfully restore slopes in Fish Canyon before
they start destroying more of our mountains.
Measure A allows Vulcan Materials to avoid doing enhanced
reclamation (micro-benching) as a result of "any scientific,
technical and geotechnical factors or events" skirting reclamation
through micro-benching. At that point, Vulcan merely pays a $1
million fine and submits a revised reclamation plan to return to
reclamation using 40 foot benches. In addition, Measure A requires
only "substantial compliance" with the terms of the plan. The term
is never defined, but is allows Vulcan Materials to get away with
less than full compliance, which has characterized their performance
in the past.
Vulcan’s use permit requires them to pay mining extraction taxes.
However, they have been underpaying mining taxes for years. In fact,
from January 2002 to September 2007, they paid no mining taxes at
all, even though we have photographic and satellite images showing
massive amounts of mining occurring on the west side of the quarry.
In that time, Vulcan has undercut all the roads leading to the top
of the quarry in order to extract the maximum amount of rock on that
side. Official documents from the environmental impact report show
that Vulcan mined more material than they declared on their mining
extraction tax payments. In addition, a report by AGI Geotechnical
indicated that only 71.8 million tons of the original 119.3 million
tons remain within the Azusa Rock Quarry. This would indicate that
Azusa Rock Quarry has under-reported mining extraction by 47.5
million tons. At the current extraction tax rate this would
represent over $17 million in unpaid mining taxes.
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