Cemex Sued by the EPA for Air Quality Violations

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed suit against Cemex in the Riverside Federal Court for air quality violations at its Victorville plant.

The EPA stated that although Cemex spent millions of dollars in recent years to renovate that plant, they failed to install the proper air pollution controls to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. The suit also claims that Cemex made major improvements to its Victorville plant in 1997 and 2000 without getting permits required by the Federal Clean Air Act.

EPA spokesman Francisco Arcaute said that "The facility is a 'major' source of air pollution" in the Victorville area.

The plant in Victorville is different than the facility that is planned for the Soledad Canyon area in Santa Clarita. The Santa Clarita facility is planned as a quarry, where at the Victorville plant rocks are pulverized to make cement.

Cemex has a history of air and water quality violations in various states, which is one of the reasons that the City of Santa Clarita has strongly opposed the planned facility in Soledd Canyon. Cemex and the City of Santa Clarita are currently observing a "truce" in an attempt to come to some sort of agreement about the operations of the planned Soledad Canyon mine.