I would like to take this time to thank the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors for supporting agriculture and the environment and voting to approve the General Plan/Zoning Amendment No. 2015-126; Policies and Regulations for Mining Permitting at the 17 November 2015 public hearing. The mission of the Agricultural Commissioner is to promote and protect the agricultural industry, the environment, and the public. One of our objectives is to promote, protect, and further the economy of California State and Mariposa County agriculture to the fullest extent commensurate with the public welfare. In addition, within the authority delegated, our objective is to actively further and protect the environment and the health and welfare of the people of the State and County.
Mining is an industrial extractive activity that has the potential to cause many types of pollution and environmental impacts if not carefully conditioned as a matter of project planning. Both SMARA (Surface Mining and Reclamation Act) and CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) impose certain controls and mitigations on mining activities, but not necessarily at the local level.
A comprehensive Conditional Use Permit requirement that is applicable to all mining operations in the county, regardless of parcel size, provides for local oversight and ensures that third-party concerns and impacts are addressed. It allows for more public input during the permit process and requires each project to be reviewed on a site specific, project specific basis. A Conditional Use Permit does not necessarily impose undue constraints on mining or impede the county’s ability to approve the mining projects. But it does provide the tools that we need to prevent disasters and to ensure that there is a balance between the goals of mine owners and the property rights of agricultural operations and other neighbors.
A Conditional Use Permit also allows the county to consider uses which may be essential or desirable, but which are not allowed as a matter of right within a specific land zoning, through a public hearing process. The Conditional Use Permit allows for more thorough review of a project, including addressing community and taxpayer concerns, and can provide flexibility within a zoning ordinance. And just as important, it requires the operation to prove that it is complying with the conditions of permitting over the life of the project. It also helps to prevent mining operators from passing on the true cost of their extraction activities to the taxpayers. A permitted-by-right operation does not.
Per the Planning Staff Report for the 17 November 2015 public hearing, “requiring a conditional use permit for mining operations is not a prohibition on mining operations in Mariposa County. The purpose of the conditional use permit is to ensure that there is an opportunity to apply special conditions to an operation to ensure compatibility with surrounding land uses. Requiring a conditional use permit for mining is determined to be appropriate, because a mining operation may have unusual site development features or operating characteristics requiring special consideration and conditions to ensure it is designed, located and operated compatibly with neighboring properties.”
The crucial thing to remember, again from the Planning Staff report, is that: This project will affect parcels in the Agriculture Working Landscape Land Use Classification, which are 160 acres in size or greater – currently, mining is a permitted use on these parcels; the project will make mining a conditional use on these parcels. On all other parcels in the County, mining is already a conditional use which requires a conditional use permit.
Also, please note that a Conditional Use Permit would not be required for mining projects under the SMARA permitting threshold of 1000 cubic yards or 1 acre of earth disturbance.
What requiring a Conditional Use Permit for all mining operations in Mariposa County over the SMARA permitting threshold does do is give the residents a voice and the right to ask questions as well as an opportunity to review the proposed project and suggest any mitigations if warranted. For these reasons, and in the interest of protecting Mariposa County agriculture, the environment, and particularly our surface and ground water supplies, I urge the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors to approve the Ordinance Amending the Zoning Ordinance to Implement New Regulations for Mining Permitting Pursuant to General Plan/Zoning Amendment No. 2015-126; Policies and Regulations for Mining Permitting, formerly known as “Option 2”, that makes mining a secondary activity (except where already prohibited) on all land zones and use designations, including land zoned Agricultural Exclusive (AE) at the 15 December 2015 meeting.
Thank you for your kind consideration. It is time to be pro-active, to stand strong, and work to protect the public, our water resources, the environment, agriculture, and our rural heritage.
Cathi Boze
Mariposa County Agricultural Commissioner
