State legislators denied a local lawmaker’s bill to stop a mining project that proposes to drill and blast a 600-foot pit along the San Joaquin River and is undergoing its environmental review.

On Monday, the California Assembly Committee on Natural Resources voted down AB 1425 from Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, though it may come back up in January 2026 for absent committee members to consider, said committee chair Isaac Bryan, D-Baldwin Hills.

The “narrowly tailored” bill, according to Arambula, would have stopped Mexico-based CEMEX from emptying water from mining pits, which he said risks contaminating the river and overdrafting water along the river.

By banning “dewatering,” the company’s plan to dig the 600-foot pit would not only be stopped, but it would force the company to cease its current operations as well, CEMEX representative Scott Govenar said at the hearing.

Govenar said the company is undergoing necessary environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

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“There needs to be some certainty that if you’re a business in the state of California or a developer, and you play by the rules, you do CEQA, and if it’s approved, you can actually build,” Govenar said in the hearing. “This bill does the opposite. It turns CEQA upside-down and says, ‘regardless of what happens, regardless of the science, regardless of the process, we can ban the project.'”

Committee Vice Chair Juan Alanis, R-Modesto, agreed with Govenar, saying the bill sets a bad precedent.

“I think we’re going to start seeing more bills like this that are also going to want their projects also to be bypassed,” Alanis said.

Mining Site 200 Yards from River

CEMEX mines for aggregate on two sites a few hundred yards apart on the river. The site where the mining company would dig the pit — called the quarry site — lies about 200 feet from the river.

Builders use aggregate for concrete and asphalt essential for construction. While gravel and sand may be cheap, transportation is costly.

“There are often increased environmental and societal costs associated with the import of aggregate when compared to local production,” a 2018 survey from the California Department of Conservation states. “The environmental impacts include higher emissions of greenhouse gases, such as CO2, and air pollution.”

The company wants to do hard-rock mining in addition to aggregate.

Arambula questioned the need for additional mining. A 2018 California geological survey shows Fresno’s mining operations provide 182% of projected aggregate needs for the next 50 years.

CEMEX Would Blast Bedrock to Extract Materials

Fresno County analysts are currently responding to the more than 600 comments on the CEMEX environmental review posted in December 2024. Every comment must be responded to before it goes to the Fresno County Planning Commission for consideration.

The Planning Commission’s decision is final unless someone appeals within 15 days, according to Bernard Jimenez, planning and resource management officer with Fresno County.

“We received a considerable number of comments which we are currently reviewing and will be developing a response for each one as part of the County’s final environmental impact report,” Jimenez said.

Arambula said during the hearing that local agencies can be a “rubber stamp” for projects.

Fresno County Board Chair Buddy Mendes said that’s ridiculous. He said the five board members are going to weigh the pros and cons of the proposal.

In 2023 when the project’s permit neared expiration, the company asked for four years to complete the updated environmental impact report. Supervisors gave them three.

Mendes said they were critical of allowing operations to continue without finishing the environmental review.

“We’re not going to extend it to where you don’t need a conditional use permit change,” Mendes said.

‘Hardest Working River in America’: Weaver

Sharon Weaver, executive director of the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust, called the river “overworked.”

“It’s been called the hardest working river in America because of all the dams that have been placed on the river, all of the resources we have taken out of the river, including sand and gravel, and the water itself,” Weaver said at the hearing. “Over 95% of the river’s flow is diverted at Friant Dam. There’s pros and cons to that diversion. It supports a lot of agriculture, but it has harmed the river system.”

In a previous interview, Weaver said the group’s biggest objection to the project is the blasting the company would do. To break through bedrock and extract materials, explosive material would be used. The company says it would limit the blasts to a few days in the work week and only during working hours.

Weaver said blasting could change water flows and disrupt wildlife and recreation.

Pete LoCastro, operations manager for CEMEX’s Rockfield plant, said during the meeting the explosive material they use wouldn’t release contaminants into the water, but rather sends them up into the air.

Dewatering Could Impact Water Supply

Govenar said dewatering — Arambula’s concern — is essential for mining and has been happening since operations began nearly a century ago.

Dewatering doesn’t go back into the river but is instead used for dust mitigation, Govenar said.

“This is about shutting down the existing project, if they can’t dewater, there can’t be mining,” Govenar said.

Permitting a new mine would take 20 years, he said.

Weaver told GV Wire, however, that taking water from the river and not putting it back could impact water supply.

“If water is flowing in from the river and never going back out, then we have the supply issues mentioned as potential impacts in the (draft environmental impact report),” Weaver said in an email.

Mexico is considering banning dewatering nationwide as it deals with water shortages.

Roman Rain Tree of the Mono Tribe spoke about the Dumna Tribe that lives near Friant Dam.

“These folks do not have access to the river, do not have access to the land, and you’re about to approve something that’s not even accepted in Mexico, but that we, in America, in California, in our backyard, are going to have to live with,” Rain Tree said.

CEMEX May Be Running Out of Aggregate With Current Operation: Arambula

Nearly as many residents near the river and environmental advocates came out to support Arambula’s bill as did CEMEX employees and subcontractors who came out to oppose it.

Employees and subcontractors said shutting down the mine would end their jobs. The company employs 90 people.

“Working at CEMEX isn’t just a job, it’s a career, because of that and our union benefits we earn a great wage and retirement,” CEMEX employee Andrew Finch told lawmakers. Finch has worked there seven years.

Fresno County supervisors gave CEMEX until late 2026 to have their plan approved or the company’s permit will expire. If the plan is not approved, CEMEX would need to get the permit extended.

Arambula said the company has run out of rock at the site, thus the need to blast to extract more. A question to CEMEX to verify this was not returned by the time of this story’s publication.

“This is the new way they’re trying to get it,” he said.