Mine Near Red Rock Canyon State Park May Get No Environmental Review

Kern County is ready to approve an open-pit mine complex next to Red Rock Canyon State Park without reviewing the mine's environmental impact.

The county says that the Matcon Corporation's planned reopening and expansion of a 16-acre open-pit mine on private land surrounded by the State Park would do no damage to the environment and is thus exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.

The mine, which would extract the minerals bentonite clay and pumicite, would consume as much as 20,000 gallons of water a day during operations. Trucks and equipment would access the mine by way of Bureau of Land Management and state park lands, and the surrounding area is potential habitat for sensitive species such as Mohave ground squirrels, desert tortoises, Red Rock tarplants, desert kit foxes, and burrowing owls.

Bentonite clay, of which between 5,000 and 15,000 tons will be mined from the site each year, is a versatile material used in applications ranging from drilling mud for the oil and gas industry to cat litter. Pumicite is a finely ground form of the volcanic rock pumice, wioth uses ranging from soaps to concrete.

Kern County admits the mine would become a source of particulate matter released into Red Rock Canyon State Park's airshed, and that archaeological resources important to the Kawaiisu and other Native people will likely be affected. Despite these factors, possible wildlife impacts, and the effects on views from the park and the nearby El Paso Mountains Wilderness, Kern County's Planning and Community Development Department has determined that the project will have no significant environmental impact as long as the miners follow a few basic rules to control dust, protect wildlife, and monitor or discovered archaeological artifacts.

Projects can be exempted from Environmental Impact Review under the California Environmental Quality Act if they truly have minimal potential effect on the environment. But some familiar with the mine site -- on the grounds of the historic Cudahy's Old Dutch Cleanser Mine -- say that the potential impacts on traffic, viewsheds, and cultural resources alone merit full review under CEQA.

The Kern County Planning and Community Development Department is taking public comments through Thursday, December 18. We'll be watching this story closely.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that December 18 was Wednesday.