"Straight Talk: Part 1" is the headline for the 1/2 page ad by Cemex in today's papers.

First of all, let me state that the Cemex mine is not a certainty - the battles wage on to keep this mega-mining operation from coming to the Santa Clarita area. The annexation of the Stonecrest development area was just one of the recent moves by the City of Santa Clarita to attempt to block this operation from ever opening its doors.

Claiming to answer the public's questions about the proposed mega-mining operation in Soledad Canyon, the Cemex ads are really aimed towards making them look like the "good guys" instead of the pollution-causing traffic-snarling image that has been presented in the local papers as the City of Santa Clarita and others fight to keep Cemex from opening in the first place.

Today's ad states that they are a sand and gravel mining project with rights contracted from the BLM. This much is true.

The ad also states that the traffic impact will be minimal, with limited truck trips during peak hours. What they fail to mention is that the sand and gravel laden trucks will put an extra burden on the roads themselves, regardless of when the trucks are on them. Who's going to pay those increased road maintenance costs?

Cemex also claims that there will be no environmental impact on the Santa Clarita area, which the City of Santa Clarita disputes quite vehemently. With the extra dust from the operation itself as well as the pollution from the trucks, significant environmental impact is expected if the mine is allowed to operate at its proposed levels. The ad says that Cemex has already committed $2 million to create an "open space/visual, air quality and traffic fund". Big deal... the $2 million won't last very long, and then what happens? And of course Cemex has a history of "bending" the rules on pollution control issues, so why should they be expected to do anything different this time?

Lastly, the ad claims that property values in the area won't be affected, stating that the operations will be out of sight of developed communities. Tell that to the Stonecrest people when they start seeing their home values falling like a Space Shuttle coming in for a landing!

Whether you were for or against the Stonecrest annexation as a maneuver to stop the Cemex mine from opening its doors, that is now history and it's time to get back to fighting the mine itself. I know that not all of the City's tactics haven't been popular (like the "Buck" signs), but the bottom line is that having a mega-mining operation this close to residential developments can't be a good thing, especially if you're one of its closest neighbors.

For more information on the Santa Clarita Valley area, visit http://HoneyStartPacking.com/ and http://SantaClaritaRealEstateBlog.com/.