According to officials at the California Coastal Commission, the last coastal sand mine in the United States has ceased operations. Located in Marina, California, Cemex notified the commission in mid-October that it had stopped mining sand at its Marina dredge pond, fulfilling the central requirement of a 2017 settlement agreement ahead of the December 31 deadline.
Cemex has been in operations for decades, extracting sand from Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and, according to studies, has significantly contributed to coastal and beach erosion in southern Monterey Bay.
For more on this story, please read this article in the Monterey County Weekly.