BajaNomad - Colonet mired in controversy..what else is new? Eco-partnership anyone?

Colonet mired in controversy..what else is new? Eco-partnership anyone?

The Sculpin - 8-1-2006 at 10:05 AM

Mineral rights off coast of Ensenada in dispute
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 1, 2006

Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy Walther has announced that a competition to develop a port and rail line near Ensenada will begin in three weeks, but a continuing disagreement over mineral rights at the proposed Punta Colonet port site could make that unlikely.

?Right now, the governor's declaration, we don't see it as well-informed,? said Gabriel Ch?vez, who is among a group that holds mining concessions off the coast. ?We are concerned about investors coming to Colonet and being misled.?

Ch?vez said yesterday he and his partners have been negotiating during the past weeks with federal officials in charge of the bidding competition to find a way to allow the port development yet retain their right to extract minerals from the ocean.
The talks stalled Thursday.

?They kicked us out of the office,? Ch?vez said.

Jes?s Lara, who represents five communal farming groups, or ejidos, that own land at Punta Colonet, also was a party to the talks and said yesterday, ?The negotiations broke down completely.?

Elorduy said in a news statement Friday afternoon and on television appearances over the weekend that high-ranking federal officials had told him the bidding process to develop the Punta Colonet port and railroad would start in three weeks.

?In the opinion of industry specialists, this would be the largest infrastructure project ever developed in the history of our country,? Elorduy said.

The port project, about 150 miles south of San Diego, is expected to attract major maritime and rail companies from across the United States and Asia.

Its development is being driven by the inability of other West Coast ports, especially those in Long Beach and Los Angeles, to handle a surge in cargo from eastern Asia. Shipments from that region to the United States are growing by 15 percent annually and are expected to double by 2020.

Punta Colonet is envisioned as serving only containerized cargo ships, which would off-load containers to rail cars that would carry the goods on a line built to connect with existing lines at the U.S.-Mexico border near Mexicali.

Investment in the port and rail line could total $4 billion to $5 billion, Mexican officials say, but additional infrastructure and the development of a city with as many as 200,000 residents geared at supporting the industrial activity could cost as much as $22 billion.

Guillermo Mart?nez Villareal, a spokesman for Elorduy, said yesterday that he did not know the status of the negotiations involving the mineral rights or how the bid would be structured.

?I don't have the details because it's a federal bidding process,? he said.

Cesar Patricio Reyes, the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation official in charge of the bidding process, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Attempts to reach him also have been unsuccessful during the past 1? months since Ch?vez declared that his mining concession makes the port project unfeasible.

Ch?vez and his partners, who he declines to identify, gained the mineral rights several months ago under a new law that allows mining on the ocean floor. Ch?vez claims significant deposits of titanium and iron exist in the area where the federal government wants the port to be developed.

President Vicente Fox was expected to start the bidding process during a visit to Ensenada in early June. Subsequently, Reyes announced the project was being delayed ?three or four months maximum.?

According to Ch?vez and Lara, negotiations with the federal government have been continuing since then to resolve the issue. A representative of Elorduy has been present at the talks, including the meeting that broke down Thursday, Ch?vez said.

Before then, he said, it appeared the parties were close to reaching an agreement. The mining group had tentatively agreed to give up 7,400 acres of property off the coast of Punta Colonet for the port development out of a total of 74,000 acres in mining concessions that Ch?vez and his unnamed partners hold.

?We agreed that they would facilitate our project if we agreed on the (7,400 acres) and both projects would be coordinated,? he said.

On Thursday, the mining group brought a new proposal and a new partner to the table. With a company Ch?vez identified as SAS Marine, which he said was the top port developer in Mexico, the group asked to be granted nine docks for private development in return for building a 4.3-mile breakwater valued at about $1 billion.

?The rest would be under government administration. We would build and maintain our terminal, and they would do theirs,? Ch?vez said. ?They didn't want to do that.?

Elorduy's announcement has confounded the parties, he said.

?He's very well aware of what happened. They are selling the project now,? Ch?vez said. ?For now, the negotiations are over. . . . The way they are proposing it is not proper.?

Although he believes an agreement can be reached, Ch?vez said that if the project is let out for bid beforehand, ?then we would take legal actions.?

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Diane Lindquist: (619) 293-1812; diane.lindquist@uniontrib.com

DanO - 8-1-2006 at 10:39 AM

Interesting. Chavez was the guy originally behind the container port plan. Then a couple of months ago he and his undisclosed partners acquire the mining rights under the port pursuant to a new law, he brings in a new port developer and wants his own piece of the port action. And then of course we have the ejido issues.

I'm thinking my view of the Pacific isn't going to be cluttered by container ships for awhile yet.

comitan - 8-1-2006 at 10:57 AM

A few greedy people filling their pockets instead of doing whats right for Mexico.

BajaNews - 8-1-2006 at 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by The Sculpin
Mineral rights off coast of Ensenada in dispute
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 1, 2006

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20060801-9999-1b...

Bruce R Leech - 8-1-2006 at 04:01 PM

:lol:

comitan you are right again :tumble:

David K - 8-1-2006 at 07:07 PM

You will note that the rail line is going to Mexicali, not Tijuana.

This is the same route the British had surveyed for the rail line from their colony and wheat mill in San Quintin... It will go to near San Vicente then head east to Valle Trinidad, through the San Matias Pass and up to the U.S.

bancoduo - 8-1-2006 at 09:55 PM

what happens when all those containers get to Mexicali? :lol:

David K - 8-1-2006 at 10:03 PM

They cross the border if they are for U.S. destinations!

Remember it is because American ports cannot handle the amount of freight being shipped in (so they say).

Now, if they open up the titanium sand mining of San Antonio Del Mar/ Cabo Colonet area, then the train line can haul that off, as well.

Oh, anybody building a vacation home near Colonet... might rethink your plans???

Dave - 8-1-2006 at 10:21 PM

If they do ever begin this project, the road from Ensenada/Colonet will become a nightmare. Bumper to bumper trucks (both ways) for as long as construction takes. Maybe one reason for the new road South of San Felipe?

DanO - 8-2-2006 at 09:55 AM

This is hard to believe, but I heard that the plan calls for a new road to be built paralleling and slightly inland from the coast north from Colonet. Sounded like BS to me.

bajalou - 8-2-2006 at 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave
If they do ever begin this project, the road from Ensenada/Colonet will become a nightmare. Bumper to bumper trucks (both ways) for as long as construction takes. Maybe one reason for the new road South of San Felipe?

Kind of doubt the Gonzaga San Felipe road would help as it would add a LOT of extra miles.

Dave - 8-3-2006 at 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajalou
Kind of doubt the Gonzaga San Felipe road would help as it would add a LOT of extra miles.

Not for folks heading to SUR. Enter at Mexicali and a straight shot South to LA bay.

bajalou - 8-3-2006 at 07:15 PM

For just bypassing that area you are certainly correct - save sevral hours. I was thinking about the traffic from the Colonet area when I made that comment.

TMW - 8-5-2006 at 09:08 AM

Next thing you know they might put a hwy in from San Quintin thru Matomi to hwy 5.

David K - 8-5-2006 at 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by TW
Next thing you know they might put a hwy in from San Quintin thru Matomi to hwy 5.

Bite your tongue TW! :lol:

bajalou - 8-5-2006 at 10:58 AM

A friend wsho bought 3000 acres in Valle Chico extending across the valley just north of Rehab Road (by where the cattle guard is on East Valley road) keeps insisting that there is a plan to build a road up the Matomi then north thru Valle Chico connecting to Hghy 3 as it starts thru San Matis pass.

I keep telling him it's a crazy route but he insists that's what will happen. :?:

jimgrms - 8-5-2006 at 01:25 PM

As for the containers Tv program say that 7or 8 million container arive in the states and never leave just stored in a big pile thier is a small market for them dealers are selling them for use in buisness for site storage and some one in frisco area is building houses out of them at 150,00 a square ft which seem very high to me but storing all those empty containers is a real problem

David K - 8-5-2006 at 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajalou
A friend wsho bought 3000 acres in Valle Chico extending across the valley just north of Rehab Road (by where the cattle guard is on East Valley road) keeps insisting that there is a plan to build a road up the Matomi then north thru Valle Chico connecting to Hghy 3 as it starts thru San Matis pass.

I keep telling him it's a crazy route but he insists that's what will happen. :?:

Building a road in a flash flood basin/ canyon like Matomi would be dumb... The San Felipe businesses would not have any part of a plan to avoid their town, as well.