CalMat shuts down it's sand and gravel operation at Lang Station.

01/21/97 CalMat, the largest sand and gravel company in California, is shutting down it's sand and gravel operations at 14212 Lang Station Road in the Santa Clara River, just south of Agua Dulce. A.E. Smith Company and Dick Lang use the same address and apparently share space with CalMat.

This site, which has been operated under various names, was purchased by Dick Lang and Juan Alonso (shown as the owner of Le Chene) which operated as Lang Station Inc. and as Sweetwater Aggregates. They sold it to CalMat in the late1980's. CalMat has decided because of lack of need for aggregates in the area to substantially phase back their mining operations. The asphalt plant has been closed and moved to the central valley of California.

The County is required under State law, that after a phase out to have a site restoration plan. This consists of modifying the slopes of the mined area and replant them with natural grass and vegetation.

This particular property is directly South of Curtis Sand and Gravel which is the prominent sand and gravel company seen as you drive by on the freeway. The primary portion of CalMat (Lang) is south of the railroad tracks.

The CalMat site which is being closed, has a right to reopen within a ten year period from 1997.

The original mining permit was obtained by Dick Lang in 1987 and had twenty-five years to operate. It had no EIR as Lang applied for a Negative Declaration claiming that removing 93 acres of gravel would have no effect on the environment and the County agreed.

Interesting, only 10 of the 93 acres have been mined. As they have only used about 9% of the property it would seem that they have twenty-two more years to mine.

Therefore you could argue that neither the proposed new CalMat or new Transit Mix sites needs to be approved for the next twenty years plus time the old CalMat site remains idle.

This would impact the proposed CalMat site, which is south of the freeway on both sides of Agua Dulce Canyon, all the way to Soledad Canyon. It would also impact the proposed Transit Mix site which is south of the freeway and west of Agua Dulce Canyon, all the way to the tunnel on Soledad Canyon.

The proposed new CalMat site would require a substantial need to change its zoning The Transit Mix, site while zoned for mineral extraction, still must show a need - which should not be granted until this site is exhausted.

This decision seems to be good news to the residents of Canyon Country and Agua Dulce because these hills will not be knocked away as sand and gravel sites. However, it is bad news for the Agua Dulce Chamber of Commerce, which includes CalMat as a member and has always been in favor of these strip mining operations.

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