Lawmakers urge mining limits

Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, backed by the state’s U.S. senators, urged passage of a bill that would designate 640 acres of public land envisioned for a Sloan Hills gravel pit off limits to mining.

At a Senate hearing, however, a BLM conservation official suggested Congress consider the entire 800 acres of public land at Sloan Hills, 15 miles south of Las Vegas off Interstate 15, for the no-mining ban.

Carl Rountree, director of the National Landscape Conservation System, said the BLM was performing an official environmental study of the gravel operation and could not take a position on the bill.

But, Rountree said in prepared testimony, the BLM understood local concerns about air pollution and noise that would be generated by the quarry, and if Congress was going to go ahead anyway, it might as well include the entire area for ease of management.

The hearing before the Senate public lands and forest subcommittee was one required stop for legislation sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that would withdraw the land from mining use.

The subcommittee’s chairman, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Reid had spoken to him about the issue and he would be moving it forward shortly.

At the hearing, Sisolak presented the subcommittee with a sheath of protest letters written by residents of Sun City Anthem, Inspirada and other developments that have sprouted in recent years no more than a few miles from the proposed quarry.

Sisolak also unfurled a “Stop the Sloan Hills Gravel Pit” T-shirt, and said more than a thousand of them have been distributed in the southern valley.

“The residents are just fearful of what could potentially come,” Sisolak said. “It is definitely a quality of life issue.”

Speaking against the quarry, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said residents “would be impacted by noise, dust, blasting, digging, traffic and obviously decreasing home values.”

A companion bill is pending in the U.S. House. In a speech Wednesday, Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said residents have been “loud and clear that the proposed mine is unacceptable.”

Besides the impact on housing developments, Reid said at the Senate hearing the proposed mine would threaten the nearby Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area and petroglyphs that archaeologists say date to 2000 B.C. and earlier.

“I am from the desert,” Reid said. “We have gravel pits all over. We don’t need another one.”

Two companies, Mexico-based Cemex and Service Rock Products of California, have sought to lease the BLM property, which contains construction aggregates used to make concrete.

Plans call for an open pit mining operation that would carry off millions of tons of sand and rock over 20 years.

Representatives of the companies were not at the Senate hearing, although a lobbyist said some have called on lawmakers in recent days.

Ensign said he was not aware of any Senate opposition to the measure.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.