Nevada delegation pushes bills against gravel pit near Anthem

By Karoun Demirjian

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 | 5:44 p.m.

WASHINGTON - The Nevada delegation is digging in its heels once again in an attempt to keep speculators from opening up a giant hole in the ground in Henderson.

Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign and Rep. Dean Heller introduced identical companion bills in the House and Senate on Tuesday to prevent companies from mining the 640-acre gravel pit known as Sloan Hills that’s rich in construction commodities limestone and dolomite -- but also quite literally a stone’s throw away from the Anthem neighborhood of Henderson.

“Residents ... are deeply concerned with the impacts this project could have on their community,” Heller said in a statement. “Mining in a residential area could lead to deterioration in air quality and place an additional burden on community infrastructure, resources and possibly public safety.”

There are two companies seeking permission to start digging at the site: CEMEX, which is based in Mexico, and Service Rock Products, based in California. The Bureau of Land Management is conducting an environmental impact assessment of their proposals for open-air pit extraction operation at the site -- permissions which if granted, would be good for the next 30 years.

“This ill-conceived project would cause unsafe and unwanted air and noise pollution for the Henderson community,” Reid said. “The Sloan Hills gravel pit not only disturbs an otherwise peaceful community, but poses serious health risks to thousands of Nevada residents.”

Residents have said an active quarry in the midst of the residential area would be a surefire drag on the value of real estate. Henderson, like the rest of Southern Nevada, has been hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis that decimated the value of housing.

“The last thing that the city of Henderson needs right now is a gravel pit that will further drive down housing prices in the area,” Ensign said. “When people from across the county think of relocating to Nevada, we want them to think of Henderson as a wonderful community that offers a great quality of life, not as a development plagued by dust, rock blasts and general annoyances stemming from a gravel pit.”

Residents of the area have been complaining about the proposals since they were first made -- and this isn’t the delegation’s first attempt to stymie the progress of their petitions. Reid, Ensign and Heller introduced similar legislation last Congress, but it died in the clutches of a catch-all package of several dozen wildlife and conservation measures, which Republicans blocked in the Senate over more controversial elements.