BREAKING: County Moves to Give Up Local Permitting for Mines on Federal Land. Hearing Thursday, July 9
Hearing tomorrow at 9 am. Local public comment: Joshua Tree Community Center, 6171 Sunburst Ave.
For Morongo Basin residents concerned about the Music Valley rare earth mine (see a March 30, 2026, Los Angeles Times article linked here) and other mining operations in the area, one of just two items on Thursday’s San Bernardino County Planning Commission agenda is a proposal that could reshape how mines get approved across our deserts. This includes land right next Joshua Tree National Park and on the borders of Twentynine Palms and Wonder Valley. The agenda for the meeting is linked here and the staff report for the item is here.
Agenda Item 3 (Project No. PMISC-2026-00029) would repeal and rewrite Chapter 88.03 of the County Development Code, the County’s local rules for surface mining and land reclamation. County staff describe it as a routine “administrative update” to bring the 2007-era rules in line with California’s Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA). But tucked inside is a change with real teeth: the County would give up its own permitting authority over mining projects that receive federal approval.
Under the proposed new Section 88.03.040(b):
a Permit shall not be required for those portions of surface mining operations that require and obtain a federally approved plan of operation, or other federal authorization.
In plain English: if a mining company gets a green light from a federal agency like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), it would no longer need a County permit for the work on that federal land. This gives area residents much less recourse to challenge mining operations that directly affect them.
If you want to weigh in, the window is now. The Planning Commission takes up the mining ordinance at 9 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, July 9. You can speak in person in San Bernardino, or from the desert by remote video at the Joshua Tree Community Center (6171 Sunburst Ave). You can also go to the the Jerry Lewis High Desert Government Center in Hesperia — just fill out a "Request to Speak" on Item 3 when the meeting starts (3 minutes per speaker). Can't make it? Email your comment to PlanningCommissionComments@lus.sbcounty.gov, referencing Item 3, before the meeting begins. Full details and talking points are at the bottom of this post.
Why this matters
California law generally requires mining projects, including those on federal public land, to go through county permitting, a process meant to study and minimize impacts on air, water, wildlife, and neighbors. The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) warns that the county’s proposed change would surrender that local check precisely where it matters most:
Because federal requirements are weaker than California’s this means new mining projects will be approved without the public’s knowledge, and with serious impacts to our treasured public lands, air, and water.
Two other features of the proposal deserve closer scrutiny:
No environmental review. The County is claiming the entire rewrite is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under the “common sense” exemption (14 CCR §15061(b)(3)), on the theory that it’s a purely administrative update that won’t authorize anything with a significant environmental effect. That means no environmental study of the change itself.
Nothing stronger than the state floor. The staff report states plainly that “the County is not proposing any changes that are more stringent than SMARA,” even though the ordinance’s own language (§88.03.030(b)) would allow the County to go further to protect residents.
Who was in the room
According to the staff report, the County built this rewrite in direct collaboration with CalCIMA — the California Construction and Industrial Materials Association, the mining industry’s trade group. After an initial November 2023 stakeholder meeting, mining operators asked that CalCIMA “coordinate with the County throughout the process,” and staff then “collaborated with CalCIMA to prepare an update.” The State Mining and Geology Board reviewed a draft in November 2025 and “had no comments.”
There is no mention in the staff report of outreach to local residents, tribes, or conservation groups. NPCA’s concern is blunt: “in its stakeholder engagement for this proposal, the county only talked to the mining industry, and not local residents.”
The bigger picture: mining pressure is rising
This rule change isn’t happening in a vacuum. Mining interest in the California desert is surging:
In February 2026, the Australian company Dateline Resources announced its “Music Valley” rare-earth project in the Pinto Mountains south of Twentynine Palms. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) confirmed the company filed 969 mining claims totaling roughly 19,380 acres — some within 100 feet of Joshua Tree National Park. Environmental advocates warn the project could deplete scarce water, generate toxic waste, add heavy truck traffic, and threaten the desert tortoise.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Senate budget-reconciliation proposal has floated auctioning off tens of thousands of acres of BLM public land across the Morongo Basin including Wonder Valley, Desert Heights, and parcels near Joshua Tree’s Section 6. This raises the prospect of far more private development and extraction on land that is public today.
A mine like Music Valley sits largely on federal BLM land. Under the County’s proposed federal-lands carve-out, much of a project like that could move forward without a County permit and without the local environmental review that a permit triggers — the exact scenario NPCA is warning about.
Questions the proposal raises
Whatever one thinks of the County’s “administrative update” framing, the rewrite leaves several open questions that should be addressed at Thursday’s hearing:
If the County stops requiring permits for mining on federally approved public land, and federal environmental review is less rigorous than California’s, how will impacts to local air, water, and wildlife be studied and mitigated?
Will nearby residents still learn about and get a chance to comment on new mining projects on public land, or could those projects advance without local notice?
Why did the County stakeholder outreach engage the mining industry’s trade association but, per the staff report, no local residents, tribes, or conservation groups?
Given that the ordinance’s own language allows the County to adopt rules stronger than the state minimum, why does the proposal decline to do so anywhere?
Should the Commission recommend this to the Board of Supervisors now or continue the item to give the public more time to review a countywide change of this scope?
The Planning Commission doesn’t have the final say — but Thursday matters
The Planning Commission won’t adopt the ordinance itself. Its job Thursday is to make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors, which takes the final vote later. That’s precisely why public comment now is important: the Commission can recommend approval, recommend changes, or recommend that the Board make no change at all — and it can vote to continue the item to give the public more time to review it.
How to Make Your Voice Heard
The San Bernardino County Planning Commission holds a public hearing on the mining ordinance:
Thursday, July 9, 2026, starting at 9:00 a.m.
Comment in person or by remote video:
Meeting location: County Government Center, Covington Chambers 385 N. Arrowhead Ave., 1st Floor, San Bernardino, CA 92415
Courtesy remote participation (comment from the desert):
Joshua Tree Community Center — 6171 Sunburst Ave., Joshua Tree, CA 92252
Jerry Lewis High Desert Government Center — 15900 Smoke Tree St., Suite 131, Hesperia, CA 92345 (Conference Room 221, 2nd floor)
Fill out a “Request to Speak” form on Agenda Item 3 at the start of the meeting. Speakers get up to 3 minutes. Note: remote locations are a courtesy and may close due to weather, technical failure, or emergency.
Interested parties can also comment by email: PlanningCommissionComments@lus.sbcounty.gov Reference Agenda Item 3, PMISC-2026-00029. To be shared with commissioners before the vote, comments must arrive before the meeting begins Thursday morning.
The full agenda and staff report are posted at lus.sbcounty.gov. The meeting also streams live there.
Sources & further reading
“Mining Company Plans to Drill Within 100 Feet of Joshua Tree National Park,” GearJunkie
“Senate Floats Auction of 1000s of Acres of Morongo Basin Public Land,” Desert Trumpet
This article was produced with AI assistance, consistent with the approach described in our AI Policy.
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