FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Supervisors vote 3-2 against Liberty Quarry
RIVERSIDE - Riverside County supervisors today denied permits for a proposed 414-acre mine near Temecula that opponents argued would damage the environment and increase health risks, while proponents touted its job- creating potential and tax benefits.Board of Supervisors Chairman John Tavaglione cast the decisive vote in the 3-2 decision that followed three days of public testimony and nearly four hours of deliberations by the board concerning the Liberty Quarry.
"Based on the testimony, this project has too many uncertainties," Tavaglione said. "I cannot support this project."
Raucous cheers followed the supervisors' action, with several mine opponents loudly exclaiming "Thank you!"
Permits for the controversial quarry were denied by the county planning commission in a 4-1 vote last September. Commissioners cited concerns about elevated levels of silica dust and other pollutants, the permanent impact on area aesthetics, including nighttime lights, and the adverse effects on area wildlife as reasons for their opposition.
Watsonville-based Granite Construction, the quarry operator, appealed the planning commission's decision, leading to the board hearings.
Supervisor Jeff Stone, whose district encompasses the project zone, echoed the same worries expressed by commissioners in urging his colleagues today to reject the strip mine.
"All the planning commissioners struggled with competing interests," he said. "This is a tough decision, a tough vote ... But this project is incompatible (with the area)."
Supervisor Bob Buster joined Stone and Tavaglione in opposition, while Supervisors Marion Ashley and John Benoit voted in favor of the project.
Homeowner and environmental groups, along with all area Indian tribes, opposed it. Supporters included eight chambers of commerce within the county, along with officials from cities throughout the central and eastern county regions.
"I'm most swayed by our experience with strip mines in the Coachella Valley," Benoit said. "There's one visible from my neighborhood (in Bermuda Dunes) ... Never have I experienced or heard any complaints about air quality or noise from that quarry."
The former highway patrolman argued that having a mine in the southwest pocket of the county would significantly cut down on the volume of heavy, polluting gravel trucks crisscrossing the region to make deliveries.
During his presentation to the board on Tuesday, Granite's resources manager, Gary Johnson, said the mine plan had been "changed and improved" over the last seven years to satisfy most concerns.
"The county will be better off with, than without, this project," Johnson said, reiterating findings of the planning commission staff, as well as state and federal regulators, who concluded the quarry would be acceptable, provided certain mitigating measures were put in place.
Granite was seeking a 75-year operating window, during which it planned to remove five million of tons of construction-grade aggregate -- rock converted to asphalt, gravel and sand -- annually from escarpments just north of the boundary separating Riverside and San Diego counties, east of the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve and south of Temecula, adjacent to Interstate 15 and Rainbow Valley Boulevard.
"There are lots of uses for this property short of a mega-quarry," Buster said. "This county has a responsibility not to interfere with property rights, but also to scale and size projects appropriately. I don't see the need for a quarry this size, primarily designed to serve a distant marketplace in mid-San Diego County."
Stone called the environmental impact report that assessed the effects of the pit "incorrect," pointing to a "flawed" traffic mitigation analysis that's now more than five years old.
He said Granite's use of physicians with no connection to the immediate area to endorse the Liberty Quarry was suspect. One health expert was an epidemiologist from Canada.
More than 160 physicians voiced opposition to the project, joining others who expressed air quality concerns from blasting at the site and gravel trucks coming and going 24 hours a day, according to Stone.
The supervisor said wildlife would suffer from the constant stream of noise, and biology experiments conducted in the nearby preserve would be disrupted.
"The bottom line is, Riverside County has plenty of aggregate countywide (without this mine). San Diego County has plenty of aggregate countywide," Stone said.
He encouraged fellow supervisors to respect the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians' view of the quarry location as "sacred."
"This development would cut through the soul of our native American friends. That we would take away their most treasured site is unconscionable," Stone said.
According to Inland Empire economist John Husing, one of Granite's experts, the Liberty Quarry would have generated around $2.2 million in annual tax receipts for local governments, including the county, create more than 900 construction jobs in its first phase and thereafter support nearly 100 direct jobs.
Union interests backed the project for its potential to create blue- collar work in a county suffering what Husing described as a "construction industry depression."
But Stone noted that, thanks to the tribe's casino, the Pechanga employ close to 4,000 people locally.
Buster added that the prospective employment gains from the mine were nominal and that Granite was interested mainly in "market reach" for its product, not "increasing jobs."
"You hear a lot of claims and arguments made for big projects. You look back 10 years later, and it was all hogwash. You didn't need it. Everything is changed by the future," Buster said.
RIVERSIDE - Riverside County supervisors today denied permits for a proposed mine near Temecula that opponents argued would damage the environment and increase health risks, while proponents touted its job- creating potential and tax benefits.
Board of Supervisors Chairman John Tavaglione cast the decisive vote in the 3-2 decision that followed three days of public testimony and nearly four hours of deliberations by the board.
"Based on the testimony, this project has too many uncertainties," Tavaglione said. "I cannot support this project." Raucous cheers followed the supervisors' action, with several mine opponents loudly exclaiming "Thank you!" Permits for the controversial Liberty Quarry were denied by the county planning commission in a 4-1 vote last September. Commissioners cited concerns about elevated levels of silica dust and other pollutants, the permanent impact on area aesthetics, including nighttime lights, and the adverse effects on area wildlife as reasons for their opposition.
Supervisor Jeff Stone, whose district encompasses the project zone, echoed the same worries in urging his colleagues today to reject the strip mine.
"All the planning commissioners struggled with competing interests," he said. "This is a tough decision, a tough vote ... But this project is incompatible (with the area)." Supervisor Bob Buster joined Stone and Tavaglione in opposition, while Supervisors Marion Ashley and John Benoit voted in favor of the project.
"Based on the testimony, this project has too many uncertainties," Tavaglione said. "I cannot support this project."
Raucous cheers followed the supervisors' action, with several mine opponents loudly exclaiming "Thank you!"
Permits for the controversial quarry were denied by the county planning commission in a 4-1 vote last September. Commissioners cited concerns about elevated levels of silica dust and other pollutants, the permanent impact on area aesthetics, including nighttime lights, and the adverse effects on area wildlife as reasons for their opposition.
Watsonville-based Granite Construction, the quarry operator, appealed the planning commission's decision, leading to the board hearings.
Supervisor Jeff Stone, whose district encompasses the project zone, echoed the same worries expressed by commissioners in urging his colleagues today to reject the strip mine.
"All the planning commissioners struggled with competing interests," he said. "This is a tough decision, a tough vote ... But this project is incompatible (with the area)."
Supervisor Bob Buster joined Stone and Tavaglione in opposition, while Supervisors Marion Ashley and John Benoit voted in favor of the project.
Homeowner and environmental groups, along with all area Indian tribes, opposed it. Supporters included eight chambers of commerce within the county, along with officials from cities throughout the central and eastern county regions.
"I'm most swayed by our experience with strip mines in the Coachella Valley," Benoit said. "There's one visible from my neighborhood (in Bermuda Dunes) ... Never have I experienced or heard any complaints about air quality or noise from that quarry."
The former highway patrolman argued that having a mine in the southwest pocket of the county would significantly cut down on the volume of heavy, polluting gravel trucks crisscrossing the region to make deliveries.
During his presentation to the board on Tuesday, Granite's resources manager, Gary Johnson, said the mine plan had been "changed and improved" over the last seven years to satisfy most concerns.
"The county will be better off with, than without, this project," Johnson said, reiterating findings of the planning commission staff, as well as state and federal regulators, who concluded the quarry would be acceptable, provided certain mitigating measures were put in place.
Granite was seeking a 75-year operating window, during which it planned to remove five million of tons of construction-grade aggregate -- rock converted to asphalt, gravel and sand -- annually from escarpments just north of the boundary separating Riverside and San Diego counties, east of the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve and south of Temecula, adjacent to Interstate 15 and Rainbow Valley Boulevard.
"There are lots of uses for this property short of a mega-quarry," Buster said. "This county has a responsibility not to interfere with property rights, but also to scale and size projects appropriately. I don't see the need for a quarry this size, primarily designed to serve a distant marketplace in mid-San Diego County."
Stone called the environmental impact report that assessed the effects of the pit "incorrect," pointing to a "flawed" traffic mitigation analysis that's now more than five years old.
He said Granite's use of physicians with no connection to the immediate area to endorse the Liberty Quarry was suspect. One health expert was an epidemiologist from Canada.
More than 160 physicians voiced opposition to the project, joining others who expressed air quality concerns from blasting at the site and gravel trucks coming and going 24 hours a day, according to Stone.
The supervisor said wildlife would suffer from the constant stream of noise, and biology experiments conducted in the nearby preserve would be disrupted.
"The bottom line is, Riverside County has plenty of aggregate countywide (without this mine). San Diego County has plenty of aggregate countywide," Stone said.
He encouraged fellow supervisors to respect the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians' view of the quarry location as "sacred."
"This development would cut through the soul of our native American friends. That we would take away their most treasured site is unconscionable," Stone said.
According to Inland Empire economist John Husing, one of Granite's experts, the Liberty Quarry would have generated around $2.2 million in annual tax receipts for local governments, including the county, create more than 900 construction jobs in its first phase and thereafter support nearly 100 direct jobs.
Union interests backed the project for its potential to create blue- collar work in a county suffering what Husing described as a "construction industry depression."
But Stone noted that, thanks to the tribe's casino, the Pechanga employ close to 4,000 people locally.
Buster added that the prospective employment gains from the mine were nominal and that Granite was interested mainly in "market reach" for its product, not "increasing jobs."
"You hear a lot of claims and arguments made for big projects. You look back 10 years later, and it was all hogwash. You didn't need it. Everything is changed by the future," Buster said.
RIVERSIDE - Riverside County supervisors today denied permits for a proposed mine near Temecula that opponents argued would damage the environment and increase health risks, while proponents touted its job- creating potential and tax benefits.
Board of Supervisors Chairman John Tavaglione cast the decisive vote in the 3-2 decision that followed three days of public testimony and nearly four hours of deliberations by the board.
"Based on the testimony, this project has too many uncertainties," Tavaglione said. "I cannot support this project." Raucous cheers followed the supervisors' action, with several mine opponents loudly exclaiming "Thank you!" Permits for the controversial Liberty Quarry were denied by the county planning commission in a 4-1 vote last September. Commissioners cited concerns about elevated levels of silica dust and other pollutants, the permanent impact on area aesthetics, including nighttime lights, and the adverse effects on area wildlife as reasons for their opposition.
Supervisor Jeff Stone, whose district encompasses the project zone, echoed the same worries in urging his colleagues today to reject the strip mine.
"All the planning commissioners struggled with competing interests," he said. "This is a tough decision, a tough vote ... But this project is incompatible (with the area)." Supervisor Bob Buster joined Stone and Tavaglione in opposition, while Supervisors Marion Ashley and John Benoit voted in favor of the project.
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