Stewart A. Alexander
Views and News
June 20, 2007
Having millions of dollars to spend on a public relations and marketing campaign, Granite Construction is discovering that it is difficult to sell the people of Rainbow, Temecula, Murrieta, and Fallbrook on the idea of having a 155 acre quarry in their backyard.
Liberty Quarry, which will be owned and operated by Granite Construction, will be one of the largest open pit mines in the United States, located in southwest Riverside County and adjacent to northwest San Diego County. Opponents to Liberty Quarry are gathering from all sides; and leading the opposition is a small group of locals organized as Save Our Southwest Hills (SOS).
SOS has charged that opening a 155 acre quarry, to be located on 311 acres, is not right for the area or the local communities; there are more than 250 thousand people that will reside nearby and down-wind from the proposed quarry site with the possibility of exposure to deadly silica dust.
The City of Temecula has moved to annex the area where the quarry is to operate, which is southwest of the city limits. This would give the city and the community greater control over the future use of the land.
The Temecula Unified School District also has serious concerns that operating a granite mine in the hills above thousands of kids in school will pose serious health risk and potential respiratory problems.
The community is rejecting Liberty Quarry for many reasons; the most serious is the threat of the possible silica dust that may travel into the valleys due to the strong Pacific Ocean winds flowing across the hill tops.
The community is also concerned about the increase traffic the quarry will bring to the area. There will be up to 1,500 dump trucks servicing Liberty Quarry daily and the local communities are presently experiencing serious traffic congestion and heavy wear on the I-15 Freeway due to the present increase truck traffic and daily commuters; also the population has almost tripled in the past decade. The State of California has done little, to address transportation problems, to keep up with the fastest growing area in the state.
Liberty Quarry will operate 20 hours a day using explosives to remove granite rock. The quarry will also be next to a 4,300 acre, nature ecological reserve, operated by San Diego State University.
Granite Construction has embarked on a propaganda campaign to sway public opinion to accept Liberty Quarry; it is a campaign that is more than questionable. Their literature presents the quarry to be cleaner than most up-scale neighborhoods in San Diego or Riverside County.
Representatives for Granite Construction want the public to believe that an additional 1,500 trucks, coming into the area, will not increase air pollution and moving 250 million tons of granite will not pollute the air with silica dust. The company representatives also want the public to believe the mine will improve the quality of living for the general community.
Representatives for Granite Construction have projected that Riverside County will receive $300 million in tax revenues over the life-span of Liberty Quarry; what is not being disclosed is the potential billions the quarry will cost individuals, communities, taxpayers and the State of California for decades.
Representatives for the company are not presenting an accurate assessment of the damage the mine will create on such a fragile natural environment that will certainly impact the ecosystem for thousands of years.
California’s two top executives, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi have remained silent on this most important issue that will impact the lives of millions of people in Southern California.
As Granite Construction continue to pay millions to bolster their propaganda campaign, to sell Liberty Quarry, SOS has gained tremendous public support, collecting small donation and some grocery monies, to educate the public about a future industrial menace.
For more information search the Web for: Stewart A. Alexander; Schwarzenegger M.I.A on Liberty Quarry; Alexander Declares War Against Liberty Quarry; Lt. Governor Candidate- No Tunnel, No Quarry.
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