(crowd murmurs)
- [Group] I pledge allegiance,
to the flag of the United States of America
and to the republic for which is stands
one nation, under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
(crowd yelling)
(fast music)
- This is the right project in the right place.
- The wrong project in the wrong location.
- Concrete is good stuff, and we need it.
- We can't let this happen. And you can't let this happen.
- There is no unsafe health risk.
- You don't need to lie when you're telling the truth.
- You destroy the (indistinct).
- You sir, with your arrogance and your commentary.
- Very rude people. Sorry about that.
- Protecting our quality of life is of paramount importance.
- Facts really do matter.
- And maps matter.
- Do not let them tell you our history
because they don't know it.
- Granite cares about communities.
- When we're all dead, this quarry will
still be being mined. (audience claps)
- These are not popular projects, anywhere.
- I have friends and very strong supporters
on both sides of this issue.
- [Narrator] In 2005, Granite Construction Company proposed
a 75-year mining project
on the southern border of Riverside County, California.
Branded by Granite as the Liberty Quarry,
the project will become the most contentious land use battle
in Riverside County history.
(upbeat music)
Granite Construction is one
of the top 25 largest construction companies
in the United States
and is a publicly traded company.
Granite is a full service general contractor
and construction materials producer,
owning and operating 50 quarries throughout the West.
- We'll start mining back in this direction to the North.
It's 1,000 feet to right here
at the bottom. - Wow.
- The engineers have done-
- [Narrator] As the impacts
of Liberty Quarry became apparent to the public,
community members joined
(crowd cheering) Save Our Southwest Hills,
a local grassroots group dedicated to the preservation
of the pristine hills and open space in the Temecula area.
- After we learned about it, I said, "Not a chance."
We got the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve right here.
We've got the City of Temecula where it's the entranceway.
That's not going to happen.
- People of different backgrounds and all different ages,
generations, and people with different political views.
We were all focused on stopping this quarry.
- [Narrator] With a population of more than 100,000,
The City of Temecula is located directly downwind
of the proposed quarry site.
City officials and elected leaders saw a threat
to the quality of life of residents
and the local economy.
- That would have changed everything.
Everything impacted our quality of life,
noise, light, air pollution.
It would have been life changing for people in this valley.
- We wanted to invite clean industry, high tech jobs.
I used to joke while we were planning
on becoming Silicon Valley of the South,
tourism snuck up behind us
and grew into this tremendous industry
that now is approaching a billion dollars a year.
- The thought that somehow the tens of thousands of people
that make this a tourist destination would have
to share the road with over 1,600 diesel dirt trucks
every single day was very alarming.
(horn honking)
- [Narrator] To the west flank
of the proposed Liberty Quarry lies
the 4,500 acre Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve.
Founded in 1962,
the pristine reserve provides protected sites for research,
education and the preservation
of native habitat and biodiversity.
- I think you'd be hard pressed to find a worse location
in Southern California to put a mining pit of this size.
The sensitivity of the land is paramount.
It's the last of its kind for so many different things
from an ecological and environmental
and even geological standpoint.
- [Narrator] The proposed quarry site was also located
on land held sacred to the Pechanga band of Luiseno Indians.
For thousands of years, through songs and oral tradition,
the tribes spoke about a place called Pu'eska,
a sacred mountain site.
(slow music)
- Pu'eska is short for (speaks Indigenous language).
In our language it means where the rocks are weeping.
(wind whipping)
- It's a site
of where the first funeral that ever took place
in what we regard as human history.
- The rocks cry today.
You know, 105 degrees outside
and the water's glistening down these rocks
from seeping springs.
- Others have drawn parallels with other religious sites
like the Dome of the Rock and Golgotha,
and other sites like that throughout the world.
It feels inadequate to describe, even in words,
how significant that is.
It's a powerful place.
- Every time somebody dies, songs are sung about that place.
For thousands of years,
and we may lose that on our watch.
That's very sobering and sad and anguishing.
- [Narrator] Knowing the importance of local support,
Granite Construction campaigned extensively
in the community, years ahead of the formal hearing process.
- And they would take out full page ads
saying how wonderful this quarry's going to be
and how it's going to help the community.
And they had joined the Kiwanis Club.
They had people in their churches, they had,
they had donated to all the churches,
they had smoothed the path.
- It was quite obvious that they had come in
with a strategic plan in place about how to garner support
amongst the residents of Temecula.
(gentle music)
- [Narrator] In 2008, SOS Hills took charge,
ramping up its public efforts
and mobilizing community-wide opposition
with a series of rallies and protests.
- I mean, how do you get the public motivated
to support an issue?
I mean, that's what the politicians listen to.
- [Reporter] It's a Sunday afternoon walk and rally
against the development of a 300 acre rock quarry
just south of Temecula.
- I remember turning around and just being overwhelmed.
- We don't want the quarry.
Save our hills.
- I almost burst into tears
because there were just thousands of people.
(crowd yelling)
- It was one of the hottest days of the year.
I think it was 107 degrees.
I kid you not.
- [Kathleen] And that band was going
and there was Jeff Comerchero
and Marianne Edwards out marching in the front.
- The folks at the SOS Hills were very passionate,
as we were.
But they had more numbers than we did.
(crowd clapping and whistling)
- We also did the human sign where we spell out the word,
no quarry, I know there was a lot of coverage of that,
which was important to try to get our side of the story out
because simply put,
our organization was a low budget organization.
- [Woman] Was the billboard easy to get?
- Absolutely not. We begged and borrowed.
And finally, we got enough donations
to actually put it together.
- And it was almost like David and Goliath.
Here were all these little people coming together
to use their slingshot against this major giant.
- [Narrator] In 2009, the City of Temecula
formally pursued annexation of the area
where the Liberty Quarry was to be built.
Annexation would have given the city
the zoning authority for the site
and allowed them to stop the quarry for good.
- Commissioners, my name is Gary Johnson.
I'm with Granite Construction Company.
I urge you to deny the application.
- [Narrator] The local agency formation commission
voted four to one to reject the annexation.
- LAFCO was just the first shot fired.
And we realized we were going to be in
for a long-term battle,
but we were prepared to do whatever it took.
- [Narrator] One month later,
Granite releases it's 8,500 page
draft environmental impact report
required by the California Environmental Quality Act
known as CEQA.
The environmental impact report, or EIR,
assesses the impacts a project will have on air quality,
ecology, traffic, noise,
and culturally significant locations.
- As the environmental documents came in,
it was stunning to see a lack of credibility in them.
- We found so many flaws in that EIR.
They did not study the hydrology of the area,
the water that moves through that rock area.
- We said it was a traditional cultural property,
like the most important place in our culture's religion.
And they said, "We respectfully disagree."
You can't do that.
I mean, there's no way.
- I was doing my report based on the best information
that I could get.
I was going with the ethnographic truth as I knew it.
And there were times when I had kickback from the client.
There was a phrase in there where it was something
that was just inaccurate.
And I said, "Let me reword it or take it out."
And they took it out.
- An anthropologist, Stephen O'Neil,
writing a decent report trying to do something good
to explain, you know, the tribal connection to the land,
but then it's also diminished, changed,
used in a way that would benefit the project.
- It actually brought up trauma.
I think for a lot of us,
I know what my ancestors went through.
They were questioned. They were told they weren't valid.
(Laura sighs)
They were told that their intelligence
and their beliefs didn't matter.
And we were walking into a structure and a system
which was going to do the same thing to us.
- [Narrator] After the EIR was formally released,
tribes throughout the region, including every Luiseno band,
as well as hundreds of local businesses
and community groups declared formal opposition
to the project.
Granite Construction must now present the EIR
and make the case for Liberty Quarry
to the Riverside County Planning Commission.
With the stakes high for both sides,
proponents and opponents began to strategize
and prepare for the upcoming battle.
- It became really clear at that point
that we all needed to work together.
- Everyone had something different at stake,
and we realized that if everybody coordinated the discussion
of their areas of interest,
we had a very, very powerful story to tell.
- And we joined forces.
- It was very nice to have a few thousand neighbors
on the same side joining together in your battle.
- The comradery that developed there
and the sense of purpose against
that common enemy was very strong.
- No one had ever seen this before.
We'd never been able to do this before.
- And as we put in the impacts that it would have
on the valley, together with our cultural concerns,
that made a great package to oppose
and possibly kill this project.
(tense music)
- [Clerk] Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Agenda item 3.1 is surface mining permit number 213.
- So, here we are.
Riverside County are facing a number of challenges.
Unemployment is high.
We all know people that are out of work.
We drive our neighborhoods and we see for sale signs.
Liberty Quarry is ideally situated to meet these challenges.
It's hidden from view behind the ridge lines.
You won't know it's there
because you won't be able to see it, hear it or feel it.
(crowd boos) - Knock it off, folks.
- When Granite Construction would say something ridiculous,
there was always that surge of, "Oh brother," you know,
"You got to be kidding!"
- You want wine country here, or you want the quarry here?
Amen.
- Some costs are very easily quantifiable
while others are not.
- Please don't dismiss us as being less than significant.
- All we've heard from Granite to date
on this issue is abandon the truth and fool the people.
- The healthy skepticism has turned into cynicism.
- We live in the job-killingest state in the union.
Every impact, no matter how insignificant or irrelevant,
must be analyzed and dissected.
- These are $48 an hour jobs with fringes.
- [Man] I'd like everybody in the audience
who is against the quarry to please stand up.
(crowd cheering)
- Never before have we seen the thousands
of people show up at these hearings.
- It was at Rancho Community Church
and people were sitting outside in tents,
you know, listening to the audio.
- There were huge crowds. It was a packed house.
There was testimony after testimony given, pro and con.
- The location of the proposed Liberty Quarry is
exactly up wind of the prevailing winds.
- I represent over 150 doctors in the Temecula Valley
who oppose this project.
- The maximum increase of PM 10 is less than 1%
of current levels.
- There was so much evidence being presented, just volumes.
- [Man] Cracks, gaps, fractures,
and openings are far more common than not in bedrock.
- Not all fractures are connected to each other.
- If this was an area that had an extensive amount of water,
we would expect to see much different vegetation types.
- [Man] These pictures of the mountains show us
heavy vegetation and large groves of oak trees
scattered all over the mountain.
Many of these trees are 300 to 400 years old.
- [Man] The maximum noise that's less than 10%
of the significance level.
- I mean, these are not popular projects anywhere,
but the fact is we all want what they create.
- My name's Matt Rahn.
I represent San Diego State University.
This is the last inland to coastal linkage,
containing rare and endangered species
in a pristine location.
- How will we maintain a functional linkage
if the proposed quarry is permitted?
Perhaps a catapult is an order.
(audience laughs)
It's been a long day.
(audience claps)
- [Commissioner] Well, you brought the house down.
(group laughs)
(Raymond speaks in Luiseno language)
- My name is Raymond Basquez, Jr.
I'm a member of the Pechanga Indian reservation.
I share this in the hopes that you will relate
to some of the things that I'm getting ready to tell you.
In the beginning,
our people were created all things in the Exva Temeeku,
exva, meaning sandy place,
temeeku, meaning the place of the sun.
Tuukumit and Tamaayawut, the father and the mother
came together- - Good morning, Mr. Chairman,
members of the commission.
My name is Lynne Sebastian.
I was asked by counsel for Granite to try to make a decision
about whether there is a traditional cultural landscape in,
around, near, the area of the proposed granite quarry.
- It was such a disingenuous presentation of misinformation.
- Wow.
They're hiring this person
to oppose the tribe using the tribe's creation story.
And it was just rather shocking that she would agree
to do something like that.
- The first people are created,
according to everything that I've read
from the ancestors of the current Luiseno people
and from their submissions.
- They were really not the experts on this.
The tribe was the experts on it.
With CEQA, evidence is supposed to be substantial evidence.
So, for someone who is an expert to opine on the practices
and values of a tribe without ever even meeting
with the tribe was pretty outrageous.
- [Lynne] The most central part
of the Wuyoot story was his death.
- The phrase that comes to mind first preposterous.
I mean, honestly.
I got very angry.
I was incensed, as it said in the "LA Times."
We're having someone parse out our creation story
is a despicable, despicable,
and they do it with a straight face.
Do not let them tell you our history.
Okay? Because they don't know it.
(audience claps)
- Mr. Macarro tone down the emotion just a tad.
- Yes, tribes are reticent about coming forward
with this information.
Can you see why?
After today, after having someone come up here
and rewrite our history in front of our own eyes.
I went a little off script in terms of my lawyer role
and just called her out.
To say, "Oh, well, this is the most important part
"of the creation area.
"So, this is what it should be counted."
Well, that's her opinion and she's not Indian.
And this isn't her creation story.
(audience claps)
- We got a suggestion for a five minute break up here
and I think we'll do that. (gavel pounds)
- She didn't know that we have a PhD
on our staff named Dr. Lisa Woodward,
and she's going to push back.
- The two areas that they identified
as two potential TCPs are the historic villages
and not the actual places associated with the creation.
Wexewxi Pu'eska, the crying rocks.
It's a place within the larger TCP,
a larger place name, which is Kaamalam Pomki.
- Now we have a battle of experts.
We've leveled the playing field.
- Is a project like you're proposing
in that proximity to the Garden of Eden appropriate?
- It's further away than the Pechanga's golf course.
So, maybe that's the answer.
- [John] So, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,
in case you haven't been counting,
this is the sixth hearing on Liberty Quarry.
- [John] I think we're ready for a motion.
- [John] I can't support the surface mining permit
or the exception to the noise ordinance.
My motion is to deny the project.
- [John] Second, that motion.
- [John] We have a motion and second. All in favor?
- [Group] Aye.
- [John] All opposed?
- [Jim] Nay.
- [John] That's a four to one vote
with Commissioner Porras dissenting.
(audience applauds)
- There was this jubilation. There's a sense of efficacy.
That we had won. That our arguments had resonated.
That the presence of thousands of residents
of the valley meant something.
- It was just chaotic.
It was, there was, there is no question about it.
People were just ecstatic.
- You'd think when you finally have something go
in your favor, the story isn't over yet.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] Having been denied,
Granite Construction appealed the Planning Commission's
four to one denial
to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors
who have the final say on county land use projects.
Both sides sharpen their arguments
then make their case over the course
of three long and contentious hearings.
(electric music)
- Hundreds of people turned out today for a hearing
on a proposed rock quarry in Temecula.
- You had a literal sea of green,
which was Granite and a sea of orange,
which were the members of the public
who were opposed to the quarry.
Media everywhere.
(crowd yelling) - We want jobs.
We want jobs. We want jobs.
- We're not going to allow any cheering, booing, et cetera.
You can wave your hat if you want to clap. Okay?
(wind whipping)
- [Reporter] The people wearing orange have
a vested interest in this.
All that we spoke with live in the Temecula area,
not the case for the green team.
Most we spoke with our union members
from all over Southern California.
They were bused into Riverside today,
paid by the union and given a free lunch.
- I saw a gentleman walking out
and he had one of the Granite Construction, you know,
green shirts on and took the shirt off,
threw it on the ground.
He said, "I'm unemployed right now,
"Granite Construction told me this was going
"to be a career fair."
(tense music)
- Granite is a good company.
They've been named
one of the world's most ethical companies.
- Granite has earned its good reputation.
They play by the rules.
- I've been up to the quarry site. It's a pile of rocks.
- I have not been paid to be here today.
- Temecula is wine country, not mine country.
- I'm Kathleen Hamilton. These are my grandsons.
And with me today are over 40,000 signed petitions
from residents to let you know that the vast majority
of residents strongly oppose Liberty Quarry.
- It was larger. There was so many more people there.
There was more at stake.
- With the Board of Supervisor meetings,
that was the final authority.
And the outcome of those meetings was going
to be definitive.
- No matter how you look at it,
this proposed project is not small.
You could include one or more
of the seven wonders of the industrial world.
- We are frightened of the impacts
because they are real and they are serious
and they are long lasting.
- Granite has told us their operations,
excuse me, long day.
Granite has told us
their operations would have no adverse impacts
to our property or quality of life,
but won't guarantee it in writing.
I have an eight minute video to show you.
(birds chirping)
(dogs barking)
(water flowing)
Our virgin stream wraps behind this hill
and would later flow beside Granite's industrial site.
(flute music)
The music you hear is my son, Joshua,
he's playing the flute directly behind our house.
This land will be passed down to his generation
as it has for past generations of Jurkosky.
- He showed that video and it had such an impact.
Even Tavaglione said it really impacted him.
- What would I say to my granddaughter
if we lose this thing?
"Hey, grandpa, why'd you let them do that?
"Why'd you let them take our mountain, our sacred place?"
- If it is their most important location, as they now claim,
I must wonder why they didn't buy it along with,
or instead of the casino property.
Maybe that is the question
the Indian gentleman's granddaughter will ask him.
- To be vulnerable in a situation
where you know you're going to get questioned
and scrutinized, it does not set up
a very relaxed atmosphere to then want
to share some of the most deeply held, important beliefs.
- Over the years, we've all been admonished
to be careful how we use this information.
- Thomas King said in his book and he repeated it
in the hearing for our side.
Tribes don't give away these things.
- It is a documented worldwide phenomenon
that indigenous people do not tell governments
about their spiritual places,
unless and until those places come
under some kind of existential threat.
- The potential loss of the cultural feature
or the religious site is so great potentially.
This is how we save this. We need to say something.
- In the beginning, all was empty space.
- Myra Masiel, her role was to tell the creation story.
- Chixeemal arranged for the cremation
for Wuyoot on Pu'eska Mountain.
They sang songs and danced.
This was the first time there had been singing and dancing
for the dead.
- That was how history and culture was passed down.
Mainly through the oral tradition, songs.
The songs stayed intact
because that's the core of the religion.
That's the history of the people, not only just the history,
but how you're supposed to live your life.
- So, I hope after hearing this story
that you will further understand
how sacred Pu'eska Mountain is to my people.
- No artifact, feature or place,
which lends those landscapes their importance is located on,
or is disturbed by Liberty Quarry.
- They watered it down.
They sanitized it to the point
where they had a lawyer testify about cultural resources.
- We know that the Pechanga developed a golf course
over a portion of the Great Oak Ranch.
- Hey, you're blasting an entire mountain.
We created something that is actually in harmony
with the natural topography of the area,
protecting almost every single tree that was there.
- If this approach is appropriate for land
that the Pechanga owns,
it must be, and indeed,
under the law is appropriate treatment
for other people's property
and the pursuit of their own economic interests.
- There was so much wrong with that statement
that where he was coming from,
it felt more like a personal attack, actually, you know?
At some point he wasn't attacking our refutation
of a report, our information that we put out there,
he was attacking the tribe.
You know, the land that we have today
that our casino sits on,
we didn't get to pick that land.
You know? It was not our choice to be on that land.
We got, we got forcibly removed, our ancestors,
my great grandfather, got forcibly removed out
of the Temecula Valley by a sheriff.
Everything that I had prepared for came down
to those moments.
- We knew what supervisors were for and who were against.
- After carefully reviewing, in detail,
the relevant portions of the EIR
and studying the specific dust capturing designs
of the equipment to be used at the site,
I conclude that very little dust will
actually leave the quarry site.
- John Benoit was the leading proponent
of endorsing the quarry.
So, it all came down to John Tavaglione.
- And he was playing cat and mouse with us,
and we were all sitting on the edges of our seat.
- This project, there are
just too many uncertainties for me.
I just cannot support this project at this point.
(audience yelling and clapping)
Please vote.
(computer beeping)
(audience cheering)
- A roar went up in that chamber
and there were a whole group of people
in the lobby outside the chamber.
That, in all honesty, was one of the most important
and best days of my life.
(audience cheering)
(tense music)
- Despite a denial at both the Planning Commission
and at the supervisors' hearing, these, you know,
we call them zombie projects.
They can go on for decades.
- Okay. We passed this.
But I said to the tribe, "We have to win every time.
"They just have to win once."
- [Narrator] Despite their vote in February
to deny the project by a three to two vote,
the supervisors delayed their decision on the certification
of the environmental impact report by three months.
- Welcome back to the County Board of Supervisors
afternoon session, thought we got rid of all you folks.
Just, just, just kidding. Just kidding.
- In that meeting, suddenly,
on the agenda was the environmental impact report.
We said, "Wait a minute,
"you said you don't want the project.
"Why is it, the subject, even on the agenda?
"The project is dead as you know it,
"why are you even considering it?"
- Yes, we did have a three to two vote,
but that third vote, me.
I honestly did not know where I was going to go
until the very last day at the very last hour,
end of the hour.
But in the end, I felt it was the right thing
to do to deny the project.
Why couldn't the parties work together
to come through some type of compromise?
- For this project, the impacts were so great.
They were not mitigable.
- Closing that opportunity today, I think would be wrong,
especially after seven years
and I don't know how many millions of dollars put forth
by the applicant.
So, I guess what I'm trying to say is
I still support my third vote in denial of the project,
but I also support today's motion to allow the EIR
to be certified with the denial included in that.
- Who actually would make a fool of themselves
and flip-flop on a vote in the matter
of 60 days or so like Tavaglione?
The last thing we thought he would do was flip.
- It's obvious that there's some very strange dynamics going
on in the room here today.
- I think we need to wipe out the life
that still exists in this document.
If it wasn't already wiped out by our three to two decision.
- The proponents in this case spent a lot of time
and energy to do a fair evaluation
of the environmental impact of this project.
- We gave more than enough substantial information
that should have offset the desire to certify that EIR.
- To see a project get denied,
but then to see its EIR get certified,
I'd never heard of such a thing.
I'd never seen that in my experience.
- There's no reason to certify a EIR
if you reject the project.
That's done. So, that raised all sorts of red flags.
- Today, we have placed life restoring equipment
onto a dead body and giving that body life again.
- Oh, they're going to take another run at this.
They're gonna propose another project.
- You know, it would be slightly less environmental impact
and they wouldn't have to go through all the hearings again.
They wouldn't have to go through any of that.
- Which again, begs the question
if that was the goal all along.
- Okay, we have a motion and a second, please vote.
(computer beeping) Motion carries, three two.
The EIR is certified.
That concludes our item.
- That's when all the air got sucked out of the room.
(slow music)
That was the end of the road.
The mining project was approved on that day.
- We assume Granite had some role behind the scenes
to approve the EIR,
and we were just flabbergasted, I mean.
- I know John Tavaglione well,
and I think he felt he had to walk that line
and by denying the project, but supporting the EIR,
he was kind of making everybody happy.
In essence, he was making nobody happy,
but he was in the midst of a campaign for Congress.
- In Congress, I'll continue my fight
to bring new industries to our region.
I'm John Tavaglione, I approve this message
because I want to put people back to work.
- [Narrator] From the community's perspective,
it seemed that politics hijacked the process.
On May 18th, 2012,
Press Enterprise columnist Dan Bernstein wrote,
"Days later, congressional candidate,
"Tavaglione attended a fundraiser on a yacht owned
"by Bill Johnson of Riverside-based Johnson Machinery.
"Quarries need what Johnson's got, heavy machinery."
- This is hearsay, of course.
Bill Johnson said,
"You can use my boat, but I'm not coming."
And Tavaglione got the message.
- Once again, I'm going to remind everyone, there you go.
You can wave your hats instead of applauding.
We know the colors by now.
- No project, and certainly not this one should rise
to the level where it's able to bypass local control
on two levels, city and local county representation.
- There is no rush.
What's the urgency here? For 100 jobs?
- You know, I don't want to be redundant,
but I do want to respond to,
several speakers have said, it's about money.
You know, in one respect, they're absolutely correct.
Now, wait a minute.
Aggregate costs is based primarily
on the cost of transportation.
So, every, could I ask for a quiet in the room? Okay.
We can use the deputies if you'd like, but we prefer not to.
- [Audience Member] Do you have enough handcuffs
for everybody?
- We do.
This is a terrible debacle in our county. I'm embarrassed.
And I'm apologetic to my citizens that you,
that you see this kind of government.
It's so transparent what is happening here.
And I'll just leave you with one quote.
"Politics is the second oldest profession,
"although it bears a very close resemblance to the first."
- All right, we do have a motion and a second,
please vote. (computer beeping)
Motion passes, three two.
(slow music)
- Here we are as a tribe, following the rules,
following the guidelines, telling our creation stories,
spilling our guts out about it.
And at the end, it still wasn't good enough.
Still, after all that.
- We were playing by the rules
and they kept on moving the goalposts. You know?
There was no winning for us.
- We were asking out loud in meetings for weeks,
"What could we do? Is there anything at all?"
- Yeah, my family was ready to give up hope, but you know,
SOS Hills was ready to keep moving on.
Kathleen Hamilton was always looking ahead
and she wasn't going to give up.
- We knew people would get out there
in front of the bulldozers.
- We didn't know what it might take, but whatever it was,
we were ready to do it.
- But it wasn't like we said,
"All right, we lost go home.
"You know, just live with it."
We were not going to give up.
- At that point, everybody got back together
and the city and the tribe
and the university and the community group.
We were all at the table here in city hall,
trying to figure out,
what's our best strategy moving forward?
- Both the City of Temecula
and SOS Hills separately filed a lawsuit.
And then a few weeks later, filed a second lawsuit.
We felt we were going to have to rely
on the court system to hopefully,
truly, get the victory at the very end that we wanted.
- As close as we had been with Pechanga all this time,
Pechanga had gone curiously silent for a while.
- We were asking out loud in meetings for weeks,
"What could we do? Is there anything at all?"
- [Mark] This thing is not going to be killed.
It can be slowed down.
We can be creative
and look at regional solutions, state solutions.
We know what the odds are.
They're not very good.
There's no certainty, no guarantee.
If there was a really strong lawsuit antidote
to Liberty Quarry, we'd be all over it.
Year over year, we're looking at continued annual spending
to slow this project with no guarantee in sight
and the further and further we go down the road
in this abbreviated fast-track process,
the more dangerous things get.
- We were doing that discussion.
A very hard discussion, and a very, you know, logical one.
- [Catalina] It was really sad, the last hearing,
I really felt like we're losing.
No matter what we said, no matter what anyone said,
they know which way they're voting.
And we can't change that.
- [Bill] We have a moral obligation
and a duty to protect our religious sites.
You know, we don't have a choice on this.
We have to do it.
- [Victor] And when I look around the room,
I see the children and the next generation,
if we don't do our job,
they're going to be asking us,
"Why is there a mine on that mountain?"
And that is a really important question
that we have to ask ourself.
And one of these days we're going to have to answer
to the next generation.
(tense music)
(birds chirping)
- At 10 o'clock that morning,
I got a call from a person who works for the tribe.
- And he said,
"I want you to drive straight to Pechanga
"to the north garage and go up to the top floor."
- And he didn't give me any details. Right?
And I was like, "Oh, that's a weird request." You know?
"Okay, I'll meet you guys at the top of the parking garage."
(Mark speaks Indigenous language)
- It's a very good day.
Today, we are proud and honored and moved beyond words
to announce that a few hours ago, just this morning,
we closed Escrow on 365 acres
on top of Pu'eska Mountain. (audience cheers)
You may know it as the former Liberty Quarry project site.
(audience cheers)
- Well, I was elated.
I was so happy I was shaking.
It was a big celebration.
- Like total jubilation.
It was the best day ever.
- I was smiling and laughing so much.
I, my face was aching.
- That relief that the door had been closed was outstanding.
- The preservation of that land for the Pechanga tribe,
it actually brings tears to my eyes.
- For us, a major part
of the settlement agreement is a radius restriction
preventing Granite from building a quarry
in an area encompassing approximately 90 square miles.
- Wow. - This-
(audience claps)
- I just remember always just trying not to cry.
It was just so marvelous.
- My stomach started to settle down
because I've been involved with this for about seven years.
And it was like, now it's really going to be over.
- I think I cried. I really do.
It was, I still get emotional.
It was an amazing statement by the Pechanga tribe.
What they were doing
for the entire community was incredible.
- When that question came up to the membership
about us buying it,
it was more of a,
it's more about doing the right thing.
- I think the sweet part is we wouldn't have been able
to do this just a few years earlier.
We would not have been able to do this.
- Here at city hall,
we began talking about what can we do
so that we always remember what occurred
because it will shape Temecula's future
for generations to come.
(bright music) - The city council
and the City of Temecula do hereby proclaim
November 15th, 2012, and every November 15th thereafter,
Pu'eska Mountain Day.
(audience claps)
- This outcome and this project
really brought the community together.
I think it really fundamentally changed the relationship
that the city and the community has with the tribe.
- Pu'eska Mountain Day is one way that we say, "Thank you."
- Sometimes you just have to preserve those things,
not just for us today, but for our children,
our children's children, for generations.
- When I drive to the top of our property
and I see the whole expanse of the mountain range,
it brings me such peace.
The mountain is in the hands of its rightful owner now.
- I think we're beholden to our ancestors. You know?
They identified the most important places,
so we could use that to fight for that place.
To make sure that it was going to be here for forever.
- All during this process,
so many things lined up
in a way that some people might call serendipitous.
But I think it's the mountain protecting herself.
(inspiring music)