Legislation Denounces Liberty Quarry Project

The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians today announced Thursday it had sponsored a bipartisan bill to protect open space that Granite Construction Inc. is seeking for development of its 414-acre Liberty Quarry project near Temecula.

so it was no surprise Friday evening when Granite Construction blasted the legislation.

“Granite is extremely disappointed to learn about this last minute end run around the local and state land use process,” said Gary Johnson, Southern California resource manager for Granite Construction. “We have been engaged with the Pechanga leadership, tribal council and tribal membership since we first introduced our project in 2005. It was almost four years after we first briefed the tribal council before we heard any indication that they may have issue with this site. In our over 89 years of continuous operation in California, we have a strong history of working hand-in-hand with local tribes, so this latest development is appalling to us.” 

Upon reviewing Liberty Quarry’s Draft Environmental Impact Report, the Pechanga Band said it had determined the project would cause “irreparable and immitigable destruction to this place of creation.”

“Our Tribe participated in the environmental review process and took extraordinary and unprecedented steps to provide Riverside County with ethnographic and other evidence detailing the significance of this area to Pechanga,” said Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro.  

According to the Pechanga Band, the proposed quarry site is the birthplace of creation for Pechanga and other Luiseño tribes.

Located 500 yards from the Pechanga Indian Reservation, the proposed Liberty Quarry “would produce 270 million tons of aggregate by blasting a crater as wide as 117 football fields and as deep as the Empire State Building is tall less than a quarter of a mile from the heavily populated City of Temecula,” according to the Pechanga Band.    

Granite’s own ethnographic experts acknowledged the site as significant to the Tribe, according to the Pechanga Band. Published in May 2009, the Ethnography Study noted, “…it is clear that much if not all of the Liberty Quarry project area… lies within a landscape that the Pechanga Tribe regards as spiritually significant…As such, this landscape is eligible for National Register of Historic Properties nomination as a TCP [Traditional Cultural Property] district.”

County planning staff in March, however, wrote in the Final Environmental Impact Report, “…the County respectfully disagrees with the Tribe’s characterization of the area in and around the Project Site as a TCP” and found the devastating cultural impacts to be “less than significant” under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). 

“That county planners deemed our Tribe’s place of creation ‘insignificant’ under CEQA despite overwhelming and independent evidence to the contrary is disgraceful,” said Tribal Chairman Macarro.  “Because county planners have failed to honor the spirit of the law designed to protect such areas, we are forced to seek additional legislation to protect our place of creation from destruction.”    

Bill Waggoner, business manager for Operating Engineers Local 12, sees the legislation as a job killer.

“Like the rest of the middle class of the United States, the construction industry is experiencing high unemployment and huge underemployment problems. The proposed Liberty Quarry will bring good paying long-term jobs to California at a time when the economy is in desperate need of these projects,” Waggoner said.

“This bill is ridiculous,” he continued. “While I recognize the concerns of the various Indian Tribes regarding the protection of their sacred burial sites, the public has no guarantee of that fact because that information is not available to the general public. Additionally, this area of California is very unique and there is an extreme shortage of building materials available for much needed projects. In lieu of this quarry being built, construction projects would look to Mexico and Canada for materials, thereby requiring the materials to be hauled in by truck from foreign countries many miles away.”

Project proponents also criticize the bill’s timing and language.

"The bill as presently written is akin to a legislative end-around of local government's land use regulations. The State Legislature is overreaching and, without any due process, public notice, or adequate research, has come in at the 11th hour to thwart local authority," said City of Indio's Mayor Pro Tem Glenn Miller.  "I strongly urge the Legislature to hold off on taking any hasty action at this time and allow our local land-use officials to do their job concerning this project."

Authored by Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), the legislation known as AB 742 would amend the Public Resources Code to include aggregate operations on the list of mining activities restricted near Native American sacred sites.   

“I believe respecting one another’s religious beliefs is key to a healthy society,” Lowenthal said. “And there’s probably no better place to demonstrate this than on a mountain where some believe life itself began,” she said.