Raise your voice in quarry opposition

CALIFORNIAN  April 10, 2011

 Raise your voice in quarry opposition 

  

By Andy Mcintosh - For The Californian North County Times - The Californian

I spoke to a gravel truck owner/driver the other day about the proposed Liberty Quarry in southwest Riverside County. "Will this be good for you?" I asked. His answer surprised me.

"This will be a great deal for Granite, but not for me and not for a lot of truckers," he replied. "I'm from Menifee and, like a lot of us, I'll be deadheading it much longer to Rainbow," referring to the miles an empty (non-revenue-generating) truck travels to pick up a load.

I pondered the rest of our conversation as my travels that day took me past the Rainbow Road exit and I envisioned hundreds of trucks, stacked up like planes over LAX, idling and waiting to load their trucks with rock. The diesel exhaust, the noise, the health risks, yikes ---- my windshield, the destruction to our landscape ---- coming soon!

Local Indian lore says Temecula got its name from Naxachish (nah-ha-chish), a spiritual Indian wanderer, who, while gazing down from the Rainbow Gap ---- with a coastal marine layer to the west ---- saw a valley "where the sun shines through the mist" or "Temeeku" in the Luiseno Indian language.

As I drove, I wondered how "where the silica dust and diesel exhaust fumes rain down" translates in the Luiseno language, and I am surprised that Pechanga Resort & Casino has appeared almost a bit player in this unfolding drama. After all, this open pit mine will be in its backyard, too.

Then I saw "the billboard." Sponsored by "Save Our Southwest Hills," the sign screams "NoGravelQuarry.com" and invites people to attend the April 26 public meeting, starting at 4 p.m. at Rancho Community Church in south Temecula.

Kathleen Hamilton, SOS-Hills' tireless president, hopes (according to its website) "the billboard will help us get ---- not hundreds, but thousands ---- (to the meeting) to convince the supervisors that this quarry is absolutely unacceptable."

But the battle is much more basic than that. The real issue is as simple as "Not in My Back Yard."

Of this there can be no question; no 48-inch thick EIR can possibly negate ---- let alone mitigate ---- the environmental trauma over the next 75 years from a 1,000-foot-deep, mile-long open pit mine cut smack dab into the middle of an agricultural region and ecological reserve.

So why are employees in the Riverside County Planning Department seemingly so favorable to this project? Will there be traffic and noise problems? Yes, but not in commission members' backyards. Will there be pollution and health concerns? Yes, but not in their backyards. The negatives are well known, but none of this matters to quarry supporters.

This is what matters: Show up at the April 26 public meeting and tell the commissioners, "Not in my backyard!"

Visit www.NoGravelQuarry.com for more information about the public meeting and what you can do to fight this Goliath.

ANDY McINTOSH is a resident of Temecula. Contact him at SoCalMcIntosh@aol.com.