CEMEX blast mine proposal in Fresno County raises big questions
The San Joaquin River, one of California’s most beleaguered waterways, has endured over a century of exploitation. The river’s flow reduced by 97%, its salmon runs were erased by dams, its wetlands stripped by decades of mining, and its floodplain in the heart of Fresno carved into barren pits. Now, global mining giant CEMEX wants to blast a massive new crater along its banks – a hole roughly twice as deep as Millerton Lake. The project, the international company claims, is critical to address Fresno’s gravel supply chain. But a Fresnoland investigation, based on thousands of pages of technical documents, environmental reports, and state geological records, reveals the project is a needless assault on the San Joaquin River to extract materials the region already has in surplus.
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