VENTURA COUNTY, Calif.— The Center for Biological Diversity is challenging a Ventura County decision allowing a rock quarry to expand mining operations. A Center appeal filed with the county’s board of supervisors notes that the expansion would block a critical connectivity area for the region’s mountain lions and destroy some of the last populations of a native plant species.

The county’s planning commission gave the green light for Pacific Rock to expand operations near Camarillo and extract nearly 30 million tons of rock over the next 60 years. In its approval, the commission used an environmental study that only considered the project expansion for the next 30 years and failed to adequately analyze the wildlife, plant and air quality harms through the lifespan of the operation.

“The commission made a big mistake by using a faulty environmental review to make decisions on behalf of the next four generations of Ventura County residents,” said Evan Levy, an attorney at the Center. “While we don’t know whether this rock will be wanted or needed in 2086, we do know that the mountain lion population is already hanging by a thread. Giving this rock quarry a free pass is essentially cutting a lifeline for local pumas.”

Central Coast and Southern California mountain lions are a threatened species and are protected under the state Endangered Species Act. The project’s expansion would reduce a 1,500-foot wide wildlife connectivity area to just 800 feet. Halving this already-narrow pinch point would significantly block and deter animal movement to and from the Santa Monica Mountains.

The mine expansion would also destroy multiple populations of the Conejo buckwheat, a species of flowering shrub that occurs only in northwest Santa Monica Mountains and nowhere else on Earth.

The mining operation, which includes up to 120 daily truck trips to haul aggregate, soil, concrete and asphalt, would significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and degrade air quality during the lifespan of the project. The original plan called for a 30-year expansion. But the commission ultimately doubled the project’s timeline without considering or reducing the project’s environmental harms over time.

The Center’s appeal to the board of supervisors, filed late last week, asserts that the commission violated the California Environmental Quality Act in approving the expansion. The board of supervisors is expected to consider the Center’s appeal at a future meeting.