| My Quarry Speech to the Riverside Supervisors Tu. 6/26/07, in Riverside |
This was a fascinating and educational learning experience. After an impressively controlled agenda starting promptly at 9:00, with many diverse speakers and agendas, and all five Commissioners involved, my "non-agenda" speech began at 10:15, to the raised throne-like dias of the five Commissioners. It's all projected onto two large monitors and broadcast out to the huge auditorium, so one looks and sounds much larger than life. My permitted time was 3 minutes. I went for 4, causing flashing red lights and finally buzzers to terminate me at the end of the sentence near the end ending in "constantly poisons us", but just before the short final paragraph starting with "Money is another big issue." OK, because it was the least important. That's why it's last. Written copies of the speech were distributed to the Commissioners after I left, however. Ironic, however, is that I seemed to deliver my money paragraph by mental telepathy earlier to Supervisor Jeff Stone! In a different context, he worries what will happen to Riverside County's coffers, now brimming from juicy tax receipts, if property values decline, dragging down future tax receipts. Hmmm!! I rest my case, as Perry Mason might say: as this writer has previously remarked, $2 bil. (that's $2,000,000,000) of Temecula/Murrieta real estate values may be destroyed, due to the 800 pound Granite gorilla in our midst. It appears Commissioner Jeff Stone shares the same worry, though he didn't connect those particular dots, as I've done. That puny $2mm/year in taxes Riverside would get from the Temecula quarry may be more than offset by the destruction of our taxable real estate values, so even Riverside would lose, not just Temecula real estate owners. Speaking of real estate value destruction, a house buyer looking in Temecula walked away from buying a house a few days ago when he/she heard about the impending threat of Granite to our community. First straw in the wind of the approaching quarry tornado? Keep fighting! Granite has now accelerated plans to close in for the final kill in August, I'm told. This is sooner than we had previously thought Do whatever you can to stop this Goliath. Be a David! Forward this message to anyone not informed or involved. Nick Biddle |
Gentlemen,
Granite Construction's proposed dynamite quarry, rock crushing, and asphalt plant in the proud, upscale, beautiful, new, residential communities of Temecula-Murrieta and nearby towns is an insulting outrage and must not be permitted.
How stupid does Granite think we are?
How cheap and corrupt do they think Riverside politicians and officials are that a golf outing, steak dinner, charity sponsorship, or such, will buy their approval to destroy our lovely, proud and unique community of 250,000 people.
Granite's paid flak economist John Husing produces glowing pro quarry reports, all while claiming to love the environment on his expensive treks (who pays for those trips?) to New Guinea and the Himalayas, but strangely he shows no regard for the unique, pristine 4,600 acre Margarita River Reserve in his own backyard which funnels clean Pacific Ocean breezes through the Santa Rosa Mountain Gap to our lovely valley, to provide us with uniquely clean air, and fresh water, downstream, to our heroic Marines at Camp Pendleton. It is astride this gateway to our clean air and the Marines clean water that Granite would poison us with their deadly silica dust, deadly diesel particulates from 1,400 trucks a day, and asphalt plant fumes.
Granites lies, distortions, and pretensions:
If they were in the securities business, as I was before retiring, they would be jailed or at least fined for fraudulent statements.
Examples of Granite's lies:
1. Temecula is just a little dusty no-count mobile home park populated by a few hundred stupid, impecunious yokels. Actually, proud, progressive, growing, dynamic Temecula is #1 out of 79 towns in California of 75,000-125,000 people. We want to become like Silicon Valley, not a silica valley. We are wine country, not mine country, with our famous 18 beautiful tourist destination wineries.
2. Dynamite blasting is silent, and harmless.
3. Night lights are invisible.
4. Asphalt plants are odorless.
5. 200 people showed up for the 3/18 Birdsall Park Rally, Granite's Gary Johnson said, but newspaper experts estimated 750-1,500.
6. Granite's quiet little Indio plant is just like the raucous, toxic monster they want to put in our neighborhood. That's like saying that a pussycat is just like a tiger. This little canard was used as a scam to lull people who took the Indio tour, to believe the planned Liberty Quarry was just another harmless, if ugly, Indio sand pit.
Health is the single biggest issue:
1.Razor sharp microscopic silica particles from crushed granite is just like asbestos. It wafts 50 miles on the breeze. One causes silicosis, the other asbestiosis. You, your children, and grandchildren die in 6 months to 5 years from both. At best you get asthma and other respiratory illnesses. SCAQMD came in full force, to our town meeting at the beautiful, new Temecula Library last week to tell us all about it in detail. 5,400 people die a year in Southern California from already horrible air, the nation's worst.
2. Carcinogenic diesel particulates from trucks cause 71% of toxic emissions a day already in Southern CA, AQMD told us. Now Granite wants to poison us even more with 1,400 trucks a day in our community. This doesn't even count the gigantic mining machinery on the site spewing diesel fumes 20 hours a day for the next 75 years!
3. Forty schools, many beautiful new parks, and 250,000 people are in the direct path of this toxic mix, carried by our once beloved westerly Pacific Ocean prevailing breeze, which, if Granite wins, will become dreaded, as it constantly poisons us.
Money is another big issue: Riverside makes a puny $2,000,000/year in taxes from the destruction of our community, but Granite makes $40,000,000/year in profits, or $3 bil. over the 75 year life of their mine. All this at the expense of BILLIONS of dollars to the 250,000 residents of this lovely community in destroyed real estate values, and ruined healthy environment leading to sharply increased health costs.
Politicians and officials are best remembered and respected and survive the longest if they do the right thing by their voters and constituents and not cave into bullying, high-powered big money slimesters like Granite Construction Company who have made a practice of arrogantly running over people for their own profit, at others' expense.
Respectfully submitted,
Nick Biddle
Nicholas Biddle, Jr.
31551 Sunningdale Drive
Temecula, CA 92591
tel.: 951 506-4775
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