Petitioners send sand to Sacramento, calling for end to Monterey Bay mining

UPDATE 05/12/17 6:08 p.m. After a cease-and-desist order from the California Coastal Commission last year and delayed negotiation deadlines, the Cemex sand-mining plant in Marina is still in business a year later.

“Why bother designate the Monterey Bay a National Marine Sanctuary if they can’t even shut down something that’s as egregious as a company that’s taking the very sand off our shores?” said Katherine O’dea with nonprofit Save Our Shores. “It’s just incomprehensible.”

Environmental activists said they are tired of waiting.

“We want action. It’s been enough conversation,” O’dea said.

Save Our Shores set up protest stations along the coast in April to educate residents and get their signature support.

One of those stations was at the Patagonia store in Santa Cruz.

“I think a lot of people that came in really were unaware of this situation, didn’t know that we were having sand essentially stolen from us here in the Monterey Bay. And so it was a great learning opportunity for a lot of people and it encouraged them to get involved themselves,” said James Farber with Patagonia.

Next week, some top state officials, including Governor Jerry Brown, will be getting a letter with a signed postcard and a small bag of sand from the mine.

But closing down the plant is not that simple.

“It’s jobs, there are at least 25 people employed there,” Odea said. “Cemex believes that they have rights, that they have permitted to do that. They have been grandfathered in because it was there before the Coastal Act.”

KION reached out to both the California Coast Commission and Cemex for an update on their negotiation but neither responded. The commission is hosting a meeting on the Central Coast on July 12-14, during which officials may provide more information.

PREVIOUS STORY: More than 2,000 people from the Central Coast are calling for an end to sand mining along the Monterey Bay.

On Friday, nonprofit Save Our Shores said it sent boxes of letters containing sand from the CEMEX plant in Marina to state agencies, including the governor’s office, on Thursday.

By early next week, top officials are expected to receive envelopes with anti-sand mining post cards with signatures on the back and bags of sand from the mine.

The California Coastal Commission sent Cemex a cease-and-desist letter almost a year ago. But in March Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado said the plant had ramped up its operations.

KION’s Linda Zhang will have more on this story at 5 p.m.