Turnout Dwindles, Emotions High for Second Quarry Meeting

The turnout for a quarry meeting today dwindled since the first meeting.

The meeting was the second of a planned three -- and possibly more -- giving locals a chance to talk to the county’s planning commission about a planned quarry before they make their vote.

The first meeting drew an estimated 2,000, though nobody made an official count. During the meeting – which was at Rancho Community Church – few chairs were unfilled in the sanctuary, which seats 1,400. Hundreds more milled outside on the lawn and listened to the meeting through loudspeakers as they sat in lawn chairs under a tent.

The lawn chairs sat empty and about half of the chairs were vacant in the sanctuary today.

Many in the crowd wore orange hats and T-shirts distributed by SOS-Hills, an anti-quarry group. About a dozen people wore the green T-shirts, buttons and hats distributed by Friends of Liberty Quarry, a pro-quarry group.

During the last meeting, 415 people signed a list the county collected saying they opposed the quarry. Twenty-seven signed in support, and two signed as neutral.

The commission planned to hear speakers both for and against the quarry, but due to the number of people who signed up, they only heard people speak against it.

The plan

The Liberty Quarry is planned to go just south of Temecula’s city boundary. If approved, it will take up 135 acres and stretch a mile from north to south.

Watsonville-based aggregate company Granite Construction applied with the county for surface mining permits, a zoning change and several other permissions.

During the process, the county’s planning department staff studied the quarry’s potential impact on the environment. They recommended the planning commission approve the quarry based on that report.

‘Too many suppositions’

The information in the report is questionable and best and intentionally misleading at worst, residents said today.

“There are too many suppositions and predictions to gamble on our children’s health,” said Temecula resident Don Swift.

Many residents questioned Granite’s claim that the quarry will improve local air quality.

“They say they’re going to collect 97 percent of the dust,” said Temecula resident Mario Abab who works as a pollution control specialist.

As he talked to the planning commission, he held up a bag of grey dust. It was pure silica dust, he said. He held up a long piece of cloth. It was what Granite proposed to catch the dust when it blasts, he said.

The dust in the bag would escape Granite’s dust collecting methods, called a “bag house.” It would fail to catch particulates smaller than five microns, he said.

Living near the quarry site

Others living near the proposed quarry site opposed it because it would damage the quality of their lives.

“We and all our neighbors know that living within half a mile from Liberty Quarry, even with the proposed mitigations, noise and air pollution from blasting, hundreds of trucks a day, heavy equipment, processing plants as well as night lighting, disruption of wildlife, possible pollution to our stream and wells, operations for 15, sometimes up to 24 hours a day and other unforeseen problems will certainly destroy our quality of life,” said Susan Miyamoto, who lives near the site.

Some opposed Granite’s plan to change the zoning from rural residential.

“Why do we have zoning and noise ordinances at all if one corporation can simply seek exemptions in order to enrich themselves at our expense?” Rainbow resident Cynthia Myers asked the planning commission. “Don’t these ordinances and zoning requirements exist to protect other property owners and residents?”

Emotions ran high for some residents as they urged the planning commission to reject the plan.

“We can’t let this happen,” Temecula resident Charles Coe yelled as he pointed at the planning commission seated on the stage in front of him, “and you can’t let this happen. The only liberty we need around here is liberty from the silica dust that will certainly be in our lungs.”