No 
Liberty Quarry 

Find out more about the Liberty Quarry  www.sos-hills.org 

Liberty Quarry appeal goes to Board of Supervisors Monday, Jan. 30, Monday, Feb. 6  at Riverside Convention Center  

Liberty Quarry Final Hearing – Riverside County Supervisors

 
                          ACTION ALERT!!

                 Liberty quarry  FINAL HEARING
                RIVERSIDE COUNTY SUPERVISORS

      Monday, January 30th  and Monday, February 6th
                           9:00 am   to   6:00 pm

                   RIVERSIDE  CONVENTION  CENTER
                     3443  ORANGE  ST     RIVERSIDE
                               (directions below)

                   WE  NEED  YOU  THERE !
     PEOPLE WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

        RESERVE A FREE SEAT ON THE BUS

   CALL SUZANNE  @  760-390-5085  RAINBOW/FALLBROOK
   CALL CAROL  @  951-587-0476   TEMECULA                 
         
                DIRECTIONS TO CONVENTION CENTER:
   
  "Take I-215 north to Martin Luther King Blvd. Turn left
   (west) and go about 3 miles. (Martin Luther King becomes
    14th St.) Turn right onto Market. Go about 6 blocks and
   turn right onto 5th St. Go 2 blocks to Orange where the
   huge Convention Center garage is located."

IF YOU WANT TO SPEAK OR GIVE YOUR TIME:
  
People who wish to speak at the meetings will be required to fill out a form
before they address the Board of Supervisors. A copy of that form will be
available a week before the meetings at the County  Clerk of the Board website;
http://www.rivcocob.com <http://www.rivcocob.com> . The form may be downloaded, filled out in advance
and presented to the Clerk's staff before the meeting begins, or once it is in
progress. The form also will be available at the meetings but those who wish
to comment are encouraged to download the form and fill it out ahead of time.
Forms may NOT be mailed in to the county.
Each individual will have three minutes to address the Board of Supervisors.
Up to two people may give their time to another individual to extend the recipient's
total minutes to nine. Those who give up their time must be present at the meeting
when the person receiving their time is called to speak.  

Any questions, call Kathleen  951-676-6912
                              Jerri        760-451-2413 or jaarganda13@msn.com

Riverside County has scheduled two dates for an appeal before the Board of Supervisors on the proposed Liberty Quarry mining project near Temecula. 

Granite Construction filed an appeal in late December after the Riverside County Planning Commission finalized its denial of the company’s proposed aggregate quarry on Dec. 7.  Because a large crowd is expected for the appeal hearings, the Riverside Convention Center at 3443 Orange Street in downtown Riverside has been reserved for meetings on Jan. 30 and Feb. 6.  The meetings are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and end at 6 p.m. 

To make the meetings available to as many people as possible, they will be streamed live on the Internet via links that will be available on the County’s home page, www.countyofriverside.us , and the County Planning Department web page, http://www.tlma.co.riverside.ca.us/planning .   

People who wish to speak at the meetings will be required to fill out a form before they address the Board of Supervisors.  A copy of that form will be available a week before the meetings at the County Clerk of the Board website, http://www.rivcocob.com . The form may be downloaded, filled out in advance and presented to the Clerk’s staff before the meeting begins, or once it is in progress.  The form also will be available at the meetings but those who wish to comment are encouraged to download the form and fill it out ahead of time. Forms may NOT be mailed in to the county. 

As authorized by provisions of the Brown Act and Board of Supervisors Policy A2, people who attend and wish to comment will be limited to one appearance only during the course of the meetings. Each individual will have three minutes to address the Board of Supervisors.  Up to two people may give their time to another individual to extend the recipient’s total minutes to nine.  Those who give up their time must be present at the meeting when the person receiving their time is called to speak.  No one may give their time to more than one person. 

The Board is expected to break for lunch around noon during each meeting. 

Signs or placards that might obstruct another person’s view will not be allowed inside the meeting room, nor will signs attached to sticks, poles or similar devices.  Backpacks, other large bags or large purses also will be prohibited. People who plan to attend are urged to carpool in order to minimize the effects on traffic in the downtown area and help ensure the available parking will be adequate. 

If more than the scheduled meetings are required, the Clerk of the Board will determine any future date, time and location.

Contact:

Raymond Smith (951) 955-1130

Matt Straite (951) 955-6892  

Sacredness of Temecula-area quarry site adds to fight

10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, August 13, 2011

By JEFF HORSEMAN
Staff Writer jhorseman@pe.com

Imagine having the Garden of Eden in your backyard and watching it disappear, one explosive blast at a time.

Leaders of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians say something similar will happen if a proposed Temecula-area quarry is approved in the area where they believe the world began.

"The origin of the Luiseño people is the single most important account in our culture," Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro said. "Our present-day practices, beliefs and social structure are directly related to our creation."

The tribe has gone before the Riverside County Planning Commission to fight Liberty Quarry, a proposed open-pit mine just over Interstate 15 from their reservation. Known for its casino, the tribe is backing legislation in Sacramento that would block the project by banning aggregate mining near American Indian reservations and sacred sites.

Not only would the quarry desecrate hallowed land for the 1,500-member tribe, its operations would be "blowing it up," said Paul Macarro, the tribe's cultural coordinator and Mark Macarro's brother.

Quarry developer Granite Construction contends that, for years, the tribe never said the quarry site was sacred. Company executives say the tribe's stance is inconsistent because it had no qualms about building a casino on its reservation, nor did it object in 2009 to zoning that could have put 81 homes on the quarry site.

"In our over 89 years of continuous operation in California , we have a strong history of working hand-in-hand with local tribes," Granite's Gary Johnson said in a news release. "So this latest development is appalling to us."

Part of an 8,500-page environmental study paid for by Granite and vetted by Riverside County planners in 2009 concluded the quarry would not harm "tribal archaeological resources" at the site. The tribe disagrees with the study and said county planners ignored their concerns.

Granite wants to build a quarry on at least 135 acres of a 414-acre site sandwiched between Temecula and San Diego County . At its deepest point, the quarry would extend 1,020 feet into the ground. The Empire State Building is 1,250 feet tall.

For 75 years, Granite would use explosives to blast away a projected 270 million tons of aggregate, tiny rocks used as building materials. Asphalt and concrete also would be made at the site. Most of the aggregate would be carried by truck into San Diego County .

Supporters say the quarry would support high-paying jobs, generate hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and fees and solve an aggregate shortage that threatens to derail economic recovery efforts. Granite also said the quarry would be unnoticed from the outside and improve air quality because diesel-spewing trucks wouldn't have to travel as far for aggregate.

Critics say the quarry would worsen truck traffic; cause air, noise and light pollution; spoil a neighboring wilderness preserve; sever a crucial wildlife corridor and hurt tourism.

Unless the anti-quarry bill passes -- a vote could come before Sept. 9 -- the Riverside County Board of Supervisors will decide whether the quarry is approved. The Planning Commission's fifth hearing on the project is at 9 a.m. Monday at Rancho Community Church , 30300 Rancho Community Way , Temecula. The panel eventually will vote on a series of findings before supervisors take up the issue.

CREATION STORY

The tribe's history in the area pre-dates by far the city and surrounding area.

Archaeological records show the tribe, one of six bands of Luiseño Indians, has been in the Temecula Valley for at least 10,000 years. The word Luiseño is derived from Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, founded by Spanish missionaries in 1798. The mission established supporting ranchos in the region that used Indians as forced labor.

In 1875, a posse led by the San Diego County sheriff evicted the tribe from its village in what is now Temecula. Seven years later, President Chester A. Arthur established the Pechanga Indian Reservation, which today occupies roughly 6,800 acres just south of the city.

The tribe's customs and beliefs are deeply personal and until the quarry proposal, the tribe did not discuss its creation story in public, tribal officials said. The tribe fears its heritage could be distorted.

In the tribe's creation story, the world was born from the sky father and earth mother at "éxva Teméku" (Eck-vah tem-MEH-koo). This place, analogous to the Garden of Eden in the Bible, is roughly where two creeks combine to form the Santa Margarita River, which flows near the quarry site.

The first people, known as "Káamalam" (KAH-mah-lum), lived in "Káamalam Pomkí" (poam-KEY), which is in the hills above Temecula and includes the quarry site. Among the Káamalam was "Wuyóot" (We-YOUT).

Wuyóot was gifted with special knowledge and learned to make the first food to feed the Káamalam. But he was poisoned and died, marking the first time death ever visited the new world. The rocks cried in mourning.

Wuyóot was cremated at Káamalam Pomkí. Many tribal burial customs, including songs and the burning of clothes, arose from this funeral, Mark Macarro said.

After Wuyóot's death, the Káamalam gathered in a Grand Council at Káamalam Pomkí. It was decided then that some Káamalam would become stars, rocks and other parts of the natural world. After that, the first people dispersed from Temecula to all points of creation.

'ON THE FRONT END'

Tribal officials say they are battling the Liberty Quarry for an important reason.

They've already lost too much sacred land to development, including the exact spot where Wuyóot was poisoned -- now home to the Granite-run Rosemary's Mountain Quarry in the San Diego County community of Fallbrook.

"We're in a position where we got involved in this project on the front end, rather than decades behind," Mark Macarro said.

The permitting process for Rosemary's began 20 years ago and the tribe at the time "was not equipped as a tribe" to object, he said.

While the tribe struggled to get by for generations, that began to change with its first casino in 1995 and the modern casino/resort's opening in 2002. Members now receive annual payments, health insurance and other benefits.

The tribe also enjoys considerable political sway. In 2010 alone, the tribe contributed more than $875,000 to state and local political causes and candidates, state records show.

As to why the tribe had never before sought protection for what became the Liberty Quarry site, Mark Macarro pointed out that it lies outside the reservation boundaries imposed on the tribe in 1882.

Land far beyond the Temecula area once belonged to his people, Mark Macarro said. So many acres were taken from the tribe that it would be impossible to reclaim and protect them all, he said. Also, tribal officials added, they didn't move to preserve the sacred spot because no one ever envisioned a project like the quarry would be proposed there.

FIRST OBJECTIONS

When Granite pitched the quarry project in 2005, company officials met with the tribe, said Johnson , then Granite's Southern California resource manager. The tribe never mentioned the site was sacred until 2009, Johnson said.

Mark Macarro called the meeting an informal "meet-and-greet" session with the tribe at the behest of local lawmakers. Under state law, Riverside County , not Granite, is the proper authority with which to share sensitive cultural information, he said.

Tribal officials said they informed county officials and others about the site's importance and sacredness as early as August 2005 and again throughout the years. The environmental study, which found the quarry wouldn't harm cultural resources, ignores the tribe's concerns, they say.

County officials, in written responses to a letter from a lawyer representing the tribe, maintained the tribe was repeatedly consulted as the study was written and that quarry site surveys were done with tribal monitors present.

If the quarry is approved, Granite must have tribal and archeological monitors present during any grading or excavating, according to proposed conditions of the project. Other conditions include "cultural resource sensitivity" training for quarry employees prior to the project's construction and operation.

Granite also contends that when Temecula tried to annex the quarry site in 2009, it proposed zoning that would have allowed up to 81 homes there. The tribe supported the annexation, Granite spokeswoman Karie Reuther said.

Tribal public affairs representative Jacob Mejia said the site's existing zoning already permits housing. There was never a plan to build homes and there likely never will be due to the site's remote, hilltop location, tribal officials said.

'VERY EMOTIONAL'

Reuther and Johnson also question why the tribe would find it acceptable to build a 200,000-square-foot casino, 522-room hotel and 18-hole golf course on its land but oppose the quarry.

Paul Macarro said the tribe's development was planned to respect sacred or significant landmarks. There's a difference, tribal officials say, between culturally important sites and sacred land such as the proposed quarry site.

Mark Macarro said the tribe is not anti-development or even anti-mine.

"We are pro-balanced development," he said, calling the quarry the wrong project in the wrong location.

Tribal leaders said it's their duty to protect their culture now that they have the organization and resources to do so.

"This is on our watch that we may lose this most cornerstone aspect of our culture," Paul Macarro said. "It's very emotional."

Sacred Sites: Help the Pechanga Pray for Ancestral Landscape

Riverside County supervisors: Donations won't impact quarry vote

11:03 PM PDT on Saturday, June 18, 2011

By JEFF HORSEMAN
The Press-Enterprise

Since 2001, the company proposing a quarry near Temecula has donated more than $59,000 to political candidates in Riverside County -- including at least $38,000 to county supervisors who will decide if the project gets built.

Campaign finance records show that Granite Construction gave to all five supervisors and local lawmakers, including state assemblymen and city council members outside Temecula. One donation went to a Moreno Valley councilwoman who serves as Supervisor Marion Ashley's chief of staff.

As plans for Liberty Quarry get closer to consideration by the supervisors -- a vote on the 6-year-old proposal could come by year's end -- Granite has directed a greater share of its contributions to county politicians. Granite didn't give to anyone in the county in 2000, but by 2010, one of every four Granite campaign dollars was donated locally.

Supervisors said Granite's donations would not influence their vote on the quarry being sought for a 414-acre site between Temecula and San Diego County . Some said they also take donations from quarry opponents. For example, Ashley said those opposed to the quarry gave him nearly quadruple what he's received from Granite.

"Regardless of how I vote on this project, some of my supporters will not be happy, but that goes with the job," Ashley wrote in an email.

In an emailed statement, Granite spokeswoman Karie Reuther wrote that, "One of Granite's core values is citizenship, and that includes being engaged members of the communities where we live and work."

She noted that besides the quarry, Granite is working on 15 construction projects in the county. Granite also runs a quarry in Indio .

Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based, nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies, said Granite's actions are typical for a large corporation.

"It's building goodwill," Stern said. "Certainly the supervisors will return their phone calls, and the supervisors will be very polite to them."

A multibillion-dollar corporation based in Central California , Granite needs the county's permission to build the open-pit quarry. Plans call for using explosives to blast away 270 million tons of aggregate, a common building material, over a 75-year period. The quarry also would contain facilities to make concrete and asphalt.

Granite and its supporters, including business groups and trade unions, say the quarry would provide an economic boost, support hundreds of jobs and generate millions of tax dollars. They contend it would reduce truck trips in the county and improve air quality because diesel trucks wouldn't have to drive as far to get aggregate.

Opponents, including the city of Temecula and a grassroots citizens' network, argue that the quarry would boost truck traffic in their communities while harming the public health by sending microscopic silicate dust particles into the air.

They say the quarry would hurt local tourism, spoil a neighboring ecological reserve and desecrate a sacred site for the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians.

MERIT, NOT MONEY

Since 2001, Granite has donated at least $38,316 to supervisors Ashley, John Benoit, Bob Buster, John Tavaglione and Jeff Stone, according to the California secretary of state's online campaign finance records. The money includes contributions to Benoit's state assembly campaign fund and Stone's unsuccessful state Senate run.

Supervisors stressed that Granite's dollars won't influence their votes. Buster, whose district includes the quarry site, said he objected to a plan in the 1990s that would have restricted non-toll lanes on Highway 91. Granite stood to benefit from that plan, he said.

While he declined to say how he'd vote on the quarry, Buster in 2009 called the quarry the "introduction of a huge new use in one of the most fragile areas we've got."

At the time, Buster served on a boundary-setting panel that denied Temecula's attempt to annex the quarry site. Buster and Tavaglione voted in favor of the city's proposal.

Benoit, who came to the board in 2009 after his time in Sacramento , received $11,406 in Granite money from 2001 to 2010, according to records. Benoit's supervisorial district includes Granite's Indio quarry.

"Part of the reason they gave to me is they knew me as a responsible member of the community," Benoit said. "It has nothing to do with the quarry."

Granite also contributed $200 to the campaign of Benoit's son, Ben, who won a seat last November on the Wildomar City Council.

Altogether, the donations represent a tiny fraction of what supervisors raise annually. Ashley, for example, raised a little more than $155,000 in 2010 alone, according to his campaign statement filed with the county clerk.

In his email, Ashley wrote that, as always, his vote would be based on the project's merits and residents' best interests. "Sometimes that means I vote with supporters and sometimes that means I vote against them," he wrote.

Ashley wrote he has taken in $51,000 from anti-quarry interests, including the Pechanga tribe and The Rancon Group, a Murrieta-based collection of development-related companies whose founder, Dan Stephenson, opposes the quarry.

Verne Lauritzen, Stone's chief of staff, said Stone wants to hear what people have to say during public hearings on the quarry. Stone's district includes Temecula.

Tavaglione did not respond to a request for comment.

Temecula City Councilman Jeff Comerchero, who is on the council's Liberty Quarry subcommittee, said the donations to supervisors don't surprise him.

CITY TO CITY

Since 2000, Granite has donated more than $3 million to candidates and ballot measures throughout California . Recipients include former governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger and current Gov. Jerry Brown.

None of Granite's dollars were contributed in Riverside County in 2000. But in 2009 and 2010, more than $27,000 -- 23.85 percent of Granite's total California donations -- were donated in the county.

In her email, Reuther of Granite wrote her company's presence in the county has grown in the past 20 years.

Today, Granite employs more than 250 people in the county, she wrote, adding that besides political donations, Granite has donated roughly $425,000 to local groups such as the Boy Scouts and Habitat for Humanity.

Granite also has given thousands to city council members with no jurisdiction over the quarry. These include Lake Elsinore council members Melissa Melendez ($500) and Bob Magee ($1,000); Menifee Councilman John Denver ($250); Wildomar Mayor Marsha Swanson ($200); Corona Councilmen Eugene Montanez ($198) and Steve Nolan ($500) and Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge ($125).

Other local recipients are Assemblymen Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore, ($2,000) and Jeff Miller, R-Corona, ($1,000).

No donations went to Temecula council members.

MORENO MONEY

A $250 donation went to Moreno Valley Councilwoman Robin Hastings, who is Ashley's chief of staff. In May, Moreno Valley joined councils in Eastvale, Banning and Beaumont in passing a pro-quarry resolution. Hastings was quoted in a Granite news release praising the project.

Hastings did not make or second the resolution, which passed unanimously, according to the Moreno Valley city clerk's office. In an email, Hastings wrote that she assumed the contribution was "because they support me in my position as an elected official."

Hastings added she hasn't spoken to Ashley about the quarry.

Comerchero, the Temecula councilman, said he's confident the county board won't be swayed by Granite's money.

"(The supervisors) are capable of taking campaign contributions and looking objectively at any project," he said.

Reach Jeff Horseman at 951-375-3727 or jhorseman@PE.com

HUNNEMAN: A proud day for Temecula

By JOHN HUNNEMAN North County Times | Posted: Thursday, June 23, 2011 5:00 pm

At a meeting Wednesday, I had to resist the urge to jump on my chair and exult at the top of my lungs: "Ich bin ein Temeculan."

For hour after hour that day, experts hired by the city of Temecula ---- along with others from San Diego State University and the Pechanga tribe ---- took turns blasting holes in the 6,800-page environmental impact report prepared by Granite Construction, which wants to dig a giant quarry just south of the city.

This was the third, and probably next-to-last, meeting of the Riverside County Planning Commission on the proposed Liberty Quarry. The meetings, held at Rancho Community Church in Temecula, have drawn large crowds, with most attendees opposed to the project.

On Wednesday, an audience of around 500 heard experts use words and phrases such as deception, misrepresentation, manipulating, insulting, purposely dishonest, patently untrue, illogical and intellectual garbage to describe many of the findings in the report, which was paid for by Granite and signed off on by the county's planning staff.

"Facts," President John Adams once said, "are stubborn things."

So stubborn, in fact, that several experts testified that when facts were presented to the report's preparers that didn't support Granite's desired conclusions, they simply left them out.

"A textbook case for how not to do (an environmental impact report)," said attorney Courtney Coyle, who represented the Pechanga tribe.

The speakers ---- economists, traffic engineers, air-quality experts, geologists ---- all had impeccable credentials.

Each received a rousing ovation after speaking, which I'm guessing doesn't happen much in the world of geology and economics.

Many shook their heads at the flawed science Granite used to try to convince the commission that blowing a large hole in an environmentally sensitive area ---- land sacred to the Pechanga and located next to a world-class environmental research center ---- that would spew dust and other pollutants into the 40-mph winds that blow each afternoon from the Pacific, making Temecula's Wine Country possible, and into the lungs of several hundred thousand people for as long as 75 years ---- was a dandy idea.

Six years ago, I predicted Granite would not build Liberty Quarry in San Diego County ---- where, by their own admission, 70 percent of the mine's aggregate would be needed ---- because the people and politicians there would not allow it.

"So let's creep just over the line into Riverside County , (Granite) must figure, where the bumpkins and the meth users won't mind," I wrote in August 2005.

That's exactly what Granite has tried to do.

On Wednesday, thanks to the city of Temecula , SDSU and the Pechanga, Granite was shown that truth trumps all the propaganda and publicity money can buy.

Contact columnist John Hunneman at j hunneman@californian.com .