Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Sen. Harry Reid asks BLM to scuttle planned Sloan Hills mining project

Harry Reid

Harry Reid

Sen. Harry Reid is upping the pressure on the Bureau of Land Management to abandon its plans for Sloan Hills, a gravel pit in Southern Nevada that developers have been eyeing for its stone deposits but area residents have been decrying as an environmental eyesore.

“The BLM should heed the unified public opposition and administratively put an end to this risky project,” Reid wrote in a letter to the local BLM field manager today. “If the permit is approved, the mining operations would blast rock, crush gravel, kick up dust, and consume precious water resources up to twenty-four hours a day, every day, for thirty years.”

The BLM is holding three public meetings over the next three days – the first takes place this afternoon – on the Environmental Impact Statement for the project, which the agency did to vet the proposals of would-be buyers CEMEX and Service Rock Products: both firms want to buy the land for the purpose of building and running limestone and dolomite mines there.

Residents have objected, prompting almost every member of the Nevada delegation to either propose or sign on to legislation to stop the project in its tracks.

But the BLM process might be a quicker way to stop it – depending on the ruling.

The BLM’s public comment period on the environmental impact statement runs through Dec. 5. After that, the agency will make a final ruling.

If they approve the mining proposals, it would open up a competitive process for the sale of the area – “there is no guarantee that CEMEX and Service Rock Products would be winning bidders,” the BLM wrote in an announcement of the hearings

So while the project is still in procedural limbo, lawmakers are lobbying the BLM hard to turn the proposal down.

“I write today to encourage you to choose the no action alternative,” Reid wrote in his letter. “The settlement agreement that prompted this EIS requires the BLM to consider the proposed sale; however, nothing in that agreement restricts the BLM’s discretion to deny the permit for the proposed gravel pit and protect the health and safety of local residents.”

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