State legislators denied a local lawmaker’s bill to stop a mining project that proposes to drill and blast a 600-foot pit along the San Joaquin River and is undergoing its environmental review. On Monday, the California Assembly Committee on Natural Resources voted down AB 1425 from Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, though it may come back up in January 2026 for absent committee members to consider, said committee chair Isaac Bryan, D-Baldwin Hills. The “narrowly tailored” bill, according to Arambula, would have stopped Mexico-based CEMEX from emptying water from mining pits, which he said risks contaminating the river and overdrafting water along the river. By banning “dewatering,” the company’s plan to dig the 600-foot pit would not only be stopped, but it would force the company to cease its current operations as well, CEMEX representative Scott Govenar said at the hearing. 

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