science

Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project

Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project rather than just read about it. In short: The Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project is a mining project in Northern Los Angeles County east of the city of Santa Clarita, California, United States. First mined in 1921, the property was mined by Curtis Sand and Gravel from the early 1960s until 1989, when, as a result of a legal settlement, the Bureau of Land Management put two 10-year leases to mine sand and gravel from the site out to competitive bi…

Key takeaways

Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project is a mining project in Northern Los Angeles County east of the city of Santa Clarita, California, United States. First mined in 1921, the property was mined by Curtis Sand and Gravel from the early 1960s until 1989, when, as a result of a legal settlement, the Bureau of Land Management put two 10-year leases to mine sand and gravel from the site out to competitive bid. The contracts were awarded to Transit Mixed Concrete, which eventually sold them to Cemex Corporation.

The former operator, Curtis Sand & Gravel, sued in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the contracts. After Curtis' legal options had been exhausted, the City of Santa Clarita started questioning the validity of Transit Mixed's contracts as part of a public relations campaign to cause the mining contracts to be cancelled. The BLM approved the project in 2000 by issuing a Record of Decision after a review process which lasted over 10 years. The city challenged the approval in court, alleging that the project would spoil air quality, increase traffic on the 14 Freeway and town roads and would threaten endangered fish and wildlife species. Eventually, Cemex, with the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) intervening, successfully sued the County of Los Angeles for unreasonable delays. The result was a "consent decree" or settlement enjoining the county from further interference, and requiring the county to issue a permit and certify the EIR for the federally-approved project in 2004. A 2008 United States District Court decision awarded Cemex attorney fees of $524,476.60 from the City of Santa Clarita. In the decision, Judge A. Howard Matz responded to the City's claim that its action against decertifying the CEQA decision on the Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project constituted "a CEQA Action (sic) as permitted under California law" by pointing out that "every party seeking to enforce CEQA or any comparable environmental statute - - indeed, all statutes, even anti-discrimination laws - - has the duty to comply with applicable professional and judicial requirements. Merely purporting to promote or protect a societal "good" or interest reflected in a statute does not immunize a plaintiff from the consequences of litigation abuse". The city's PR campaign eventually forced Cemex to agree to a "truce" with the city which was intended to "explore mutually acceptable solutions that will result in a win-win for both parties." During this time, the city and Cemex attempted to pass a number of bills through Congress to prevent mining in Soledad Canyon through California's 25th district Representative Howard Buck McKeon, but none were successful. The first Bill, sponsored in the Senate by Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and co-sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is S.771, the Soledad Canyon Settlement Act from 2013. S.771 and a subsequent piece of legislation sought to engage Congress to direct the Bureau of Land Management to sell vacant land in the desert near Victorville, California, the proceeds of which would go to Cemex Corporation to buy out their interest in mining Soledad Canyon. A subsequent bill (S. 2938), with its House version successfully passed, was held up in the Senate for environmental reasons by Martin Heinrich, Democratic senator from New Mexico. Heinrich objected to selling public lands as a budget offset to pay for the buyout of the mining contracts. On August 28, 2015 the BLM issued a cancellation of the contracts, and the decision is currently being appealed by CEMEX. Cemex also filed a petition for stay which along with the Notice of Appeal, is to be heard in an administrative capacity by the Interior Board of Land Appeals. Congressman Steve Knight (politician) (who replaced Buck McKeon as representative of California's 25th District in 2014) "welcomed an announcement by Cemex that [the BLM] will cancel their mining contracts in the Santa Clarita Valley". Any decision by the Interior Board of Land Appeals is expected to be appealed to the courts.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project

In research: Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1921 establishments in California, Bureau of Land Management areas in California, Environment of Greater Los Angeles, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project in simple terms?

Why does Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Soledad Canyon Sand and Gravel Mining Project.