The final event, the Post Conference Soiree will be held on board the Spirit of San Diego for dining and dancing in the beautiful San Diego Harbor. Click here for details, registration materials and updated program scheduling.
Women-In-Mining Elect
Penny Alexander-Kelley, newly elected president of California Chapter of Women-In-Mining, sees education as an essential tool in emphasizing the value of minerals in everyday life.
An attorney with the firm of Gresham, Savage, Nolan & Tilden, Alexander-Kelley is active on a subcommittee of the CMA Environment Committee.
As president, she says it is her goal “to have every WIM member confident, equipped and able to make an educational presentation in a classroom or other public setting about the value of minerals and their uses in our lives.”
Alexander-Kelley will remind members the regulation of mining and extraction of minerals is changing almost daily; “as is the way local communities and local decision-makers view the importance of mining…”
Other new WIM officers include: Denise Talavitie, supervisor of maintenance, California Portland Cement Company in Mojave; Loretta Berry, large equipment mechanic, US Borax; Shannon Carnie, corresponding secretary; Patti Deer, MDAQMD, recording secretary.
Teacher Conference update
California Mineral Education Foundation-sponsored teacher conferences in 2003 are scheduled June 26-27 in Pomona and July 31-Aug. 1 in Stockton.
The annual conferences combine lectures, workshops and field trips focused on the importance of minerals in everyday life and are designed for K -12 teachers statewide. The June conference will be held at Kellogg West Conference Center, Cal Poly University in Pomona, and the Stockton conference at University of the Pacific.
New officers announced by CMEF are: President, Bruce Warren, Southern California Rock Products Association; Vice President, Linda Falasco, Construction Materials Association of California; Secretary, James Davis, California Geological Survey; Treasurer, John Miles, U.S.Pumice Company.
CMEF President Warren and Managing Director Carol Berry conducted a successful and well-attended teacher workshop at the recent annual San Diego Science Educators Conference. OMYA (California) Inc. donated mineral samples and supplies for the workshop, and Southern California Rock Products Association sponsored the CMEF booth.
A tidier environment?
Air is cleaner, water quality better and toxic chemical releases fewer today than in the past, according to the eighth annual Index of Environmental Indicators.
Released by the American Enterprise Institute and Pacific Research Institute, Index research received by Western Business Roundtable shows air pollution in the United States has declined by 25 percent over 30 years and toxic releases have dropped by more than 50 percent in 15 years.
Steven Hayward, author of the report, says long-term improvements in air quality are significant but rarely reported because annual declines are small. Sulfur dioxide emissions, for example, dropped barely 3 percent last year, but compared with 1976 levels, the decline represents a 67 percent reduction.
Data for drinking water is incomplete, but one improvement report indicates the number of U.S.children exposed to unsafe drinking water came down from 20 percent in 1993 to 8 percent in 1999.
Tax Seminar: ‘Let’s talk’
The seventh annual CMA Mineral Property Tax Assessment Seminar in Bakersfield delivered a recent invitation to assessors and miners to use “education and information” to broaden communication between the two communities.
Peter Finie, Vulcan Materials, chairs the CMA Tax Committee and believes the message bears repeating if it encourages dialog and helps both sides understand the issues in establishing a fair and proper basis for property v
aluation.
“That was my intent when I started this seven years ago, and it has seen results. I did not expect miracles, but it has opened doors,” Finie says. He believes proof is a consistent attendance of between 50 and 60 “equally divided between assessors and industry.”
George Welch of the Los Angeles County Assessors Office attends several industry-
type seminars yearly and calls the CMA program “informative and one of the best…an excellent forum for meeting with taxpayers, as well as with government and industry.”
A highlight of the seminar was a tour of the Taft Production Company cat litter clay-based materials mine hosted by Mike Funkhouser.
The 2003 Seminar tax assessment materials may still be purchased. For information, call Stephanie Pridmore, CMA, 916/447-1977.
ld earns role in history
complexities associated with mining on federal land as opening keynote speaker for the May 21-23 Annual Conference at the Hilton Hotel Resort in San Diego. 