Duarte Council Votes 5-0 to Appeal Recent Denial of Vulcan Materials Lawsuit
DUARTE, CA, June 14, 2011 - The Duarte City Council voted unanimously tonight to continue its challenge to the City of Azusa’s 2010 approval of the Vulcan Materials Co. mining expansion project by authorizing an appeal to the State Court of Appeal. The lawsuit, originally filed in August of 2010 and first heard in late March of this year, was denied by the Superior Court on May 9th.
The City has until August 8th to file its appeal.
“The Council’s decision to appeal continues Duarte’s belief that the Vulcan EIR is seriously flawed and that destroying the Van Tassel ridge is the wrong thing to do,” commented Darrell George, City Manager.
The appeal process starts a new review by a three-judge panel located in Los Angeles at the State Court of Appeal. The process, comparable to the initial lawsuit, will involve preparation of an administrative record, the filing of approximately three briefs, a hearing and eventual ruling. It could take anywhere from nine to fifteen months to complete.
“I hope we get a panel of judges who really understands what it means to rip that mountain down,” said Councilmember Margaret Finlay as she addressed the public after returning from closed session. “We will continue to fight the good fight,” added Mayor Tzeitel Paras Caracci.
Duarte’s lawsuit focuses on the Azusa City Council’s violations of the California Environmental Quality Act and seeks to overturn its certification of the Final Environment Impact Report and related entitlements for the mine expansion project. It also raises numerous points including insufficient analysis of air quality impacts from blasting and trucking activities; ignoring South Coast Air Quality recommendations on the location and number of air monitoring stations; and Azusa’s failure to impose any mitigation measures for potential liquefaction impacts.
As approved by the Azusa City Council, the Vulcan mining expansion project is poised to destroy Van Tassel Ridge as Vulcan plans to extract 105.6 million tons of aggregate from the mountain between now and 2038. Over that same period, the City of Azusa stands to make more than $65 million in mining fees and incentives from Vulcan at the expense of its neighbors in Duarte.
