TRUTH UPDATE #1


Aggregate Shortage?

In a paid advertising supplement from Sunday, July 26, 2009, Granite Construction states that: "The region has only 17% of the permitted reserves needed, for the next 50 years." Not accurate! Consider the following:

  • The Aggregate Reserve Study only considers quarry reserves based on the "permitted life" of the quarry site. Many quarries can apply to have their operational life extended (and most likely will since that is the business they are in).

  • The most recently conducted State of California's Department of Conservation Aggregate Reserve Study is now more than three (3) years old and no longer represents current demand for aggregate.

  • The Aggregate Reserve Study numbers do not include aggregate which is currently being brought into California via ship or barge from Canada.

  • The state-wide Aggregate Reserve Study ONLY considers reserves at fixed quarry locations. "Portable" quarry locations, which provide hundreds of thousands of tons of aggregate are not included in the Aggregate Reserve Study numbers.

  • Granite Construction's Rosemary's Mountain Quarry is not included in the State of California's Department of Conservation Aggregate Reserve Study. Even now (August 2009) Granite Construction's fully permitted Rosemary's Mountain Quarry is not even shown as one of Granite's "Aggregate Facilities" on their own website.

  • Riverside County has over fifty (50) active quarries, more than any other County in the State of California.

  • Riverside County is an exporter of aggregate to counties such as: San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles.

  • There is now more and more recycling being done and required. The material gained from recycling does not show up in the available material.

So, is there a real shortage?


TRUTH UPDATE #2


In their paid advertising supplement from Sunday, July 26, 2009, Granite Construction stated that the Murrieta Library had to be reduced in size due to increased costs of construction materials. That frightening thought turns out to be not at all true!


Following is a letter that was published in the Californian newspaper on August 5th, 2009, written by Murrieta Councilman Rick Gibbs with the REAL story. He certainly should know what is true and we thought you should know too.


"Granite Quarry Fact Check"

"In the July 26 edition of The Californian, a 12-page paid advertising supplement by Granite Construction drew a correlation between increased costs for local projects and aggregate shortages. The piece incorrectly stated, "The Murrieta Library was forced to eliminate an entire room from the original blueprints because of escalating costs of construction materials."


"The reference is to the Heritage Room, which the city did not have enough money to complete. In a great demonstration of civic pride, money was raised by private contributions and that room was completed at the same time as the rest of the library.


"However, our funding issues had little, if anything, to do with the availability of aggregate in just Riverside County.


"The escalation in construction costs stemmed from two causes ---- Hurricane Katrina, and the Chinese government's push for urbanization and industrialization, which also included initial Chinese preparation of facilities for the Olympics. During that time, there was a worldwide shortage of construction materials due to the order book priorities that New Orleans and Beijing commanded.


Rick Gibbs

Councilman

Murrieta"


Letters section, Californian newspaper, August 5, 2009.


TRUTH UPDATE #3


In their paid advertising supplement from Sunday, July 26, 2009 In their paid advertising supplement, Granite Construction made the above statement that Liberty Quarry will have "No net impacts to regional air quality." In absolute contradiction to that paid advertisement, the actual statement in the letter that was sent out with the Draft Environmental Report by the County of Riverside Transportation and Land Management Agency reads as follows:


"Significant and Unavoidable Environmental Impacts: DEIR No. 475 determined that the proposed project would result in significant and unavoidable impacts to Air Quality and Traffic/Transportation, which cannot be mitigated to below a level of significance. In addition, the DEIR determined that the proposed project would contribute to cumulatively considerable and unavoidable impacts to Air Quality (criteria pollutants and greenhouse gasses) Biological Resources (wildlife movement), Traffic/Transportation (funding and timing of road improvements), and Utilities (water supply) which cannot be mitigated to below a level of significance. As a result of the potential significant and unavoidable impacts, adoption of a Statement of Overriding Considerations will be required in order for the project to be approved."


How can they do that? More importantly, how can we trust a company that does that! There is no "fact checking" required of paid advertising, so it is up to us to get to the real truth in situations such as this. This is word-smithing at its finest...and at the cost of our community.


Spread the word. We are paying attention!


TRUTH UPDATE #4


No, my sweet daughter, and here is why.

Air pollution is a fact whenever and wherever we undertake industrialization. We measure air pollution by the standard of Particulate Matter (PM) in the air we breathe. The major sources of PM are the result of manufacturing operations and transportation. Quarries are a generator of air pollution based on their manufacturing operation and the transportation of their products.


Construction that uses aggregate materials is continually changing location. However the quarry that produces that aggregate remains in place transporting (i.e. polluting) over ever greater distances for its extended lifetime. This renders invalid the argument that trucks from the quarry will all be going south thereby reducing truck emission in Riverside County. If the trucks go north, we get all the pollution from both the quarry AND the transportation.


Crystalline Silica PM from a quarry is an extreme Public Health risk with EPA limits not to exceed 3 micro grams per cubic meter while 50 micro grams per cubic meter is the EPA limit for general PM. The microscopic PM from quarry operations is the unseen deadly killer.


Liberty Quarry will contribute unacceptable quantities of PM including Crystalline Silica for its lifetime.


Lung disease is the number three killer in America, responsible for one in six deaths. Lung disease and other breathing problems constitute one of the leading causes of death in babies younger than one year old.

Riverside County currently has the third worst microscopic PM (PM 2.5) levels of all counties in the US. There is hardly a day when the current air is safe to breathe. (Google American Lung Association)

What Can Particles (PM) Do to Your Health?

  • Death from respiratory and cardiovascular causes, including strokes

  • Increased mortality in infants and young children

  • Increased numbers of heart attacks, especially among the elderly and in people with heart conditions

  • Inflammation of lung tissue in young, healthy adults (Do not exercise outside)

  • Increased hospitalization for cardiovascular disease, including strokes and congestive heart failure

  • Increased emergency room visits for patients suffering from acute respiratory ailments

  • Increased hospitalization for asthma among children

  • Increased severity of asthma attacks in children


All of this information is the result of scientific and medical research by the National Institute of Health, The Centers for Disease Control, American Lung Association, and many others whose research has been largely funded by our tax dollars and our generous donations. They are not funded by donations from large corporations. We wonder why?


Spread the word, an informed public is what will save our air quality...and the health of our children.



TRUTH UPDATE #5


In their Advertising Supplement from Sunday, July 26, 2009, Granite Construction makes the statement that "They're your friends and neighbors in the community." Given that Granite Construction wants to be "A Good Neighbor", let's just see how they have complied with Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) regulations.


First Let's take a look at two Granite Construction quarries located near Indio and Twenty-Nine Palms.

In the last twenty-four months, MSHA has issued twelve Mine Citations to Granite's Indio Quarry and sixteen to the Twenty-Nine Palms Quarry. All of the citations are classified as "Closed", meaning that they are not being contested with MSHA.

So what about Granite's newest quarry, Rosemary's Mountain, just eight miles south of their proposed Temecula quarry? In the last fifteen months Granite's newest quarry has already had six "Mine Citations", four of which are closed and two which are being contested. When you look at MSHA Mine Citation fine structure, the fines assessed at these three quarries range from a low of $60 to a high of only $1,111. With such insignificant and outdated financial penalties, it is difficult to believe that a major corporation would be motivated to comply by this kind of slap on the wrist.


Here is what the AP reported about Granite Construction in Oregon, September 10, 2007

"SALEM, Ore. (AP) - The state levied a $240,000 fine against the California contractor hired to straighten a dangerous and curving stretch of U.S. 20 in the coast range.


"Officials said the fine is for 61 violations of state water quality laws. It's the largest storm water management fine the state has ever issued against a company.


"Granite Construction cleared more than 160 acres of ground last summer, clear-cutting trees and chewing up the soil to get the stumps out. But the contractor was not installing erosion control measures to protect streams, so when heavy rains arrived last September, muddy water went into salmon-bearing streams.”


And in Nevada: (Published in The Californian Newspaper, October, 2005)

"According to state records, the Nevada Environmental Commission fined Granite several times over the past 17 years: $3,500 in September 1993, $12,000 in January 1998, $8,000 in March 1998, $30,000 in September 1998, $9,670 in December 1999, $6,785 in April 2000 and $15,400 in August 2000. Most citations the regulatory agency issued dealt with failure to control dust at various plants and construction sites. One was issued for operating a new crushing and screening operation near Carson City without a permit. Another was issued for digging a discount store site without a permit in Nevada's capital city.


One of the air quality citations stemmed from a Dec. 2, 1999, incident that was addressed in an April 2000 commission meeting, records show.

"At that time we observed major quantities of dust coming from the site to the extent that it was creating a road hazard, or diminished visibility on Highway 50 East out of Carson City," Eric Taxer, compliance enforcement branch supervisor for the state Bureau of Air Quality, told commissioners.


By late 2000, those Nevada commissioners appeared to have lost their patience with Granite. Three violations in June of that year triggered yet another fine, for $15,400, and provoked extensive debate at a meeting that August. One commissioner observed that Granite and a few other companies "seem to be in here all the time" for violations.


"...I don't think monetarily you're charging them enough to really make a difference in their operations," commissioner Paul Iverson stated, according to commission archives.

"I can just about guarantee you ... that we can go ahead and approve a $15,600 fine, or whatever it is, and before the year is over I would almost bet that we will be talking to these people again," Iverson said.


In the same meeting, commissioner Mark Doppe observed: "There are companies that are not as large as Granite, but that have as many jobs ongoing at one time in southern Nevada, that don't have anywhere the history of noncompliance in southern Nevada that Granite has statewide."


It doesn't cost much for them to SAY they will be good neighbors, but it does cost a lot to actually BE good neighbors.


If they were allowed to open and operate Liberty Quarry here in our neighborhood in Temecula, what would be their incentive to live up to their promises?


TRUTH UPDATE #6


If you have visited Granite Construction's Indio quarry, or many other quarries in Riverside County, blasting is not part of the process. For quarries with very hard rock, such as the proposed Liberty Quarry, blasting is an integral part of the process.


Granite representatives have stated that Liberty Quarry will use 10,000 pounds of explosives in a single daily blast. So how big a bang do you get with 10,000 pounds of explosives? Well, only 5,000 pounds of the same explosive were used in April 1995 to bring down a major portion of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.


There are three major problems with blasting in quarries. One is that the detonation of the explosives causes a lot of dust and debris, which is unavoidable. Much of this dust will become airborne for a very short period and settle back down to earth, but not all of it. Some of the dust, which is what is called the PM10, and smaller size remains in the air and will be carried off with the prevailing winds.


Second is that the explosives are loaded into a number of holes drilled into the rock. If for any unforeseen reason there is a cavern in the underground, the hole can overfill with explosives, creating a very unsafe situation.


Third, it is possible that once the holes are filled with explosives, the winds will exceed the wind speed for blasting, but now the holes are filled with explosives. What to do? Once the holes have been filled, it is too late to remove the explosives. The only safe thing to do is detonate the explosives, even if the wind speeds are above the allowable limits, which means the dust will be leaving the quarry site.


And let's not forget the transporting of all those explosives on our freeways!


So why do YOU think they forgot to include blasting in their illustration. Do they really think we are all that naive?

I guess they do.



TRUTH UPDATE #7


The job of a corporation is to make a profit, not to turn down business. Marketing materials such as the 12 page insert are not legal documents and are not binding so the premise of these maps is not at all believable and CERTAINLY not factual.


Following are some REAL facts.


Granite Construction is proposing that 1,600 trucks trips daily will travel Highway I-15, exiting at the Rainbow off ramps either from the north or from the south, to enter the proposed Liberty Quarry site. Once the trucks are filled with gravel, cement or asphalt, or making material deliveries, they will return to Highway I-15 to continue their journey. In addition to the 1,600 truck trips daily, there will be over 460 car trips to and from the quarry. Using the Draft Environmental Impact Report numbers for 5 millions tons of aggregate per year, this would be equivalent to over 4,200 passenger cars trips daily, using the Rainbow exit, to and from the quarry.


In the DEIR it states that significant and very costly mitigation measures are needed to deal with this increased traffic problem.


Further, in the DEIR it states that Granite will pay the cost to add two additional exit lanes to the southbound I-15 at Rainbow Valley Blvd. to access the proposed quarry; however, they will NOT be paying anything to add any additional exit lanes from the northbound I-15.


Additionally, Granite is proposing to pay just over one million dollars to mitigate what is called its share of traffic congestion. All of the freeway exits, Temecula Parkway, Rancho California Road, and Winchester Road need major, multiple lane improvements to accommodate Granite's added congestion. However, the City of Temecula and the County of Riverside, meaning you, the taxpayers, must pay the balance, which is over 210 million dollars.


Since Liberty Quarry will comprise the majority of traffic using the Rainbow Valley Blvd. exit, why should private enterprise get off so cheaply?


With the proposed 1,600 truck trips daily plus over 460 car trips daily, Granite should have to pay the cost of an entire freeway exit. So why is Granite not having to pay one-hundred percent of the cost for their own freeway exits and overpass to serve the proposed Liberty Quarry? Why will taxpayers have to pay anything to mitigate the increased traffic problem?


And when the Rainbow Valley Blvd. exit and overpass requires major repairs due to the increased truck traffic, who will be stuck with the costs? Taxpayers!