Kaiser Steel was originally planned in 1942 to be located in/near the port of LA. It would have had a good supply of water (necessary for steel production). It was moved inland to Fontana purportedly as a result of the Japanese submarine raids in 1942. Here it relied on water from the new (1940) Colorado River aqueduct and local ground water (no body lived here then). By the 1970's the plant had significant air pollution and cost problems. Water was no longer cheap and pollution was among the worst in the Sou Cal region. The plant closed, and as a result, the mine closed.

Export ore to Taiwan was mined and turned in to taconite pellets at Eagle mountain through the early 1970's. This was hauled on 10,000 ton SP unit trains to the port of LA bulk facilities via the PE line from Los Nietos and down the PE Long Beach Line to Dolores. But, high quality ore from "nearby" Australia replaced Eagle Mountain ore by the mid 70's and exports ceased.

As far as I know, the mine still had significant ore reserves, but no customers. With the dollar now worth nearly 40% less in world markets, exports of many U.S. commodities of all types are increasing again. However, it is my understanding the POLA and POLB no longer have the capacity to handle that level of bulk commodities, with container traffic supplanting both the dock space and landside capacity at the ports.

The 22 million Southern Californian's are still generating trash, and land fills (with significant ground water contamination problems) are filling up in the urbanized areas, and effectively no new ones are being permitted. So Eagle Mountain has been the subject of several "trash by rail" studies.

BOB2