- [All] I pledge allegiance
to the flag of the United States of America,
and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
(crowd cheering)
(lively 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 risks.
- 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.
(poor audio quality drowns the speaker)
- I mean, These are not popular projects anywhere.
- I have friends and very strong supporters
on both sides of this issue.
(calm music)
- We're gonna play it up there, we'll be in close.
(poor audio quality drowns the speaker)
And then we'll start mining back
in this direction to the North.
Then after about 20 years of mining this way,
they actually go back and go deeper,
1000 feet right here in the bottom.
- [Seumus] 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 would become
the most contentious land use battle
in Riverside County history.
(lively 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.
- When people talk about dust coming off the project,
the amount of PMT we generate is very small.
The concern is particular matter gets into your lungs and-
- Yeah, I understand,
- So that's why there's a lot of concern-
- And that's the silica, the particulate matter
that they're talking about that it's so dangerous
and can cause death is kind of-
- A certain percent-
- [Seumus] As impacts of Liberty Quarry
became apparent to the public,
community members joined 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 gonna happen.
- [Seumus] 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 changed everything,
everything impacted our quality of life.
Noise, light, air pollution.
People in Temecula for the most part,
were very opposed to this huge project.
- 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 1600 diesel-dirt trucks every single day,
was very alarming.
(truck honking)
(calm music) - [Seumus] 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 worst location
in Southern California to put a mining pet of this size.
The sensitivity of the land is paramount.
It's the last of its kind for so many different things,
from ecological and environmental
and even geological standpoint.
- [Seumus] The proposed quarry site
was also located on land held sacred
to the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians.
(wind blowing)
For thousands of years through songs and oral tradition,
the tribes spoke about a place called Pu'eska,
a secret mountain site.
(calm music)
- Pu'eska is short for Wexewxi Pu'eska.
In our language, it means where the rocks are weeping.
- It's site of where the first funeral that ever took place
and what we regard as human history.
- That rocks cry today.
The hottest time in August, 105 degrees outside
and the waters 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.
(calm music)
- [Seumus] Since being evicted
from their original lands in 1875,
the Pechanga tribe has lost many cultural sites
held sacred to them.
It wasn't until 1995, when Pechanga opened a casino
on a small portion of the reservation,
but the tribe began to have the resources necessary
to try to preserve their culture
and protect their religious places from destruction.
(birds chirping)
- This property has been in my husband's family for 60 years
We raised our sons here.
They grew up seeing nature and exploring
and seeing wildlife.
A year or two into the quarry battle,
I went on a tour with Gary Johnson.
We toured the quarry site
and we ended up right here on this hill
in between the two hills.
And we were looking down into this valley and I showed them,
I said, "There's my house right there."
They didn't say anything
but the looks on their faces I could tell,
we were closer than they realized.
- [Seumus] 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 is gonna be
and how it's gonna help the community,
and they had joined the Choanas Club.
They had people in their churches,
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.
- [Seumus] 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 listened to.
- [Reporter] It's us Sunday afternoon Walkin' Rally
against the development of a 300-acre rock quarry,
just South of Temecula.
- When we did the Walkin' Rally,
I remember turning around and just being overwhelmed
because it was a hill and it was just filled with orange.
- [Demonstrators] We don't want the quarry, save our health.
- I almost burst into tears
because there were just thousands of people.
(crowd cheering)
- It was one of the hottest days of the year,
I think it was 107 degrees, I kid you not.
- And that band was going and there was Jeff Comerchero
and Marianne Edwards out marching in the front.
- The folks at SOS Hills were very passionate, as we were,
but they had more numbers than we did.
(crowd clapping)
- We also did the human sign
where we spelt 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
- [Interviewer] Was the billboard easy to get?
- Absolutely not, we begged and borrowed,
and finally make the donations to actually put it together.
- And it was almost like David and Goliath.
You're all these little people coming together
to use their slingshot against this major giant.
- [Seumus] 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.
- LAFCO 2009-05-4, municipal service review
and the sphere of influence amendment,
in addition to the city of Temecula, Santa Margarita area.
- The city's intent for this area
has always been to ensure protection
from incompatible development
and that resolve cannot be understated.
- There are hundreds of supporters here.
Seven full buses came from Temecula and Fallbrook
and Marietta and Rainbow, especially to say to you,
please, please give us annexation, thank you.
(audience clapping)
- Many of the residents of Temecula
are concerned about the quarry
and I believe that they hold their concerns quite sincerely.
But when a proper EIR is done by a responsible company
like Granite with the funds to do it right,
and reviewed by an unbiased agency,
not all but many of the public's concerns will be assuage.
- Most of the time measures can be taken
to protect sacred sites and allow development to occur.
A mining operation such as this,
would do permanent, irreversible destruction
to this most sacred landscape to the tribe.
- In my opinion, it was at that hearing
the Pechanga really came out.
- Good morning Commissioners, (speaks in Luiseno),
in our language is how do we say hello.
(speaking in Luiseno)
- That hearing was actually the first time
the tribe testified in public about the creation area
and the importance of the origin area to the tribe.
(speaking in Luiseno)
- Good morning, it's good to be here with you
and it's always important for us
to actually ask the one who is above,
for protection from all bad things
and guidance in everything that we do.
And that's what I was just asking for.
- That was the first time I heard Mark Macarro speak.
And that to me created that much more of a dimension
to what we were really up against.
- If this mind continues, if annexation is not approved,
we're gonna lose yet another significant,
not just a cultural landmark, but a religious landmark
and a piece of our history and our cosmology.
And it's that vital to our people, so thank you very much.
(audience clapping)
- [Seumus] The Local Agency Formation Commission
voted four to one, to reject the annexation.
- LAFCO was the first shot fired
and we realized we were gonna be in for a longterm battle
but we were prepared to do whatever it took.
(wind blowing)
(calm music)
- [Seumus] 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 of 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,
that 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, it was unbelievable
but it was happening.
- It was a here-we-go-again kind of a moment.
Another tribe, another sacred place,
another extractive industry that wanted to come in
and do harm that would destroy that place.
- 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.
So I was not writing that in a manner to help the client
or to hinder the client.
I was just presenting the facts.
And there were times when I had kickback from the client.
"Do you have to put this information in there?
Could you reword this?"
One time the company lawyer prepared a letter.
There was a phrase in there
where it was something that was just inaccurate.
And I said, "Let me reward it or take it out."
And they took it out.
- Unfortunately, the County just used Steve's identification
of the seven independent, traditional cultural properties.
They didn't use his final conclusion
that they all are linked.
They just chose to focus on them separately
which diminishes them.
An anthropologist, Stephen O'Neill,
tried to do something good
to explain 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 can imagine just a little bit,
what our ancestors had to go through.
They were questioned,
they were told they weren't valid.
(sighing deeply)
They were told that their intelligence
and their beliefs didn't matter.
And we were walking into a structure
and a system which was gonna do the same thing to us.
That property was supposed to be part of the reservation.
It was originally in the treaties
that never got ratified by the State of California,
but because we were wronged a number of times
on so many levels, there we were fighting for protection
of our most sacred place.
- [Seumus] 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.
- 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
(audience jeering)
- [John] Talk it off folks.
- Granite Construction would say something ridiculous,
there was always that surge of, oh brother,
you know, you gotta be kidding.
- This is not a sporting event, it's a public hearing.
- We don't need them to rape our hills.
- It's not a venue for demonstrations
- We are here, we are here, please hear us.
- I wanna stress that there's two sides.
- How many children will die?
- To this particular issue.
- That will be product that our kids need,
our grandkids need.
- Both deserve to be heard without any disruption.
- I'd like everybody in the audience
who is against the quarry to play stand up.
(audience cheering)
- Never before have we seen the thousands of people
show up at these hearings.
- They were past capacity that Rancho Community Church,
people were sitting outside in tents listening to the audio.
- There were huge crowds, it was a packed house.
There was testimony after testimony, given pro and con.
- 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 granted to date on this issue
is abandon the truth and fool the people.
- The healthy skepticism has turned into cynicism.
- We live in a job-killing estate in the union.
Every impact, no matter how insignificant or irrelevant,
must be analyzed and dissected.
- These are $48-an-hour job with fringes.
- The location of the proposed Liberty Quarry
is exactly up wind of the prevailing winds.
- Any boy scout knows that you don't build the latrine
up river from the campsite.
- And there were some long meetings.
- Let me be the first to wish everybody, good morning.
I don't know when I've spent more time in church.
I feel a little closer to God
but hopefully further away from Liberty Quarry.
- I pray, plead, beg, implore,
I guess I should give them my hands and knees.
- [John] We can't hear you
while you're down there unfortunately.
- Anyway, I'll get up.
- Less traffic, cleaner air, more jobs.
They might as well be promising you
rainbows, fairies and unicorns.
- We're talking a 75-year nightmare for our valley
- Fractured, invisible, microscopic, crystalline jacket,
silicon slivers can blow 50 miles downwind.
- Throughout my childhood, I had chronic asthma.
Well, I lived in Long Beach, two blocks from the ocean.
There were no quarries anywhere around,
logical conclusion, quarries do not cause asthma.
Please evaluate this project based on its evidence.
- I interviewed Mr. Johnson
and I asked him some pointed questions,
and he gave me very specific answers,
which actually kind of impressed me,
- Temecula doesn't need you, Temecula does not want you.
It's time for you to give it up, pull up stakes
and get out of dodge, thank you.
(audience clapping)
- At some point during those hearings,
Granite Construction decided
to bring their scientific experts into the room
and provide some testimony.
- [Expert] And then the total impact for all constituents
are less than the most stringent
ambient air quality standards.
- [Man] In total, 54 mountain lines
were collared and tracked.
- [Man] I can't see a correlation between quarry activity
and a negative impact on house values.
- Vibrations will decrease by a third, a half,
as you move out from the site.
- [Man] The maximum noise is less
than 10% of the significance level.
- There was so much evidence being presented, just volumes.
- [Man] The total incremental cancer risk
with all sources added together,
including risk from diesel exhaust and crystal and silica,
is less than the significance threshold of 10 in a million.
- I represent over 150 doctors in the Temecula Valley
who oppose this project.
Crystalline silica is dangerous.
It is only created by blasting quartz,
which is found is granite.
It's basically extremely fine,
microscopic needle-shaped particles
which are not found on sand on the beach.
These particles can get all the way into the alveoli
or air sacs in your lungs where they stay,
create an inflammatory action
and that's what we're talking about here.
- I mean, these are not popular projects anywhere,
but the fact is we all want what they create.
Whether we like it or not, down in San Diego,
there is more demand for aggregate
than the local supply here.
- [John] So what you're saying is
is that so the streets in LA Jolla can be repaved.
We need to have Temecula suffer
so that LA Jolla suffers less?
(audience clapping)
- At one point we were sort of at dueling microphones.
- When I first got the using report,
I literally laughed out loud when I read it.
$200 million in annual inflation adjusted benefits
and no cost.
Now that was true, cities all over the country
would be begging for quarries.
(audience laughing)
- You've got two conflicting hydrology documents.
On one hand, you have no significant water,
no connectivity and no impacts.
The other concluded, significant water,
total connectivity and devastating impacts.
- [Man] I would characterize it
as a difference in professional opinion.
- [Man] Big risk.
- The limited water that is there is not well connected.
- [Man] We have water literally weeping out
of North side of those hills, it's connected to somewhere.
- Three monitoring wells were installed and drilled.
And when they were pumped,
approximately 15,000 gallons was pumped.
Well, let me put that in perspective,
'cause I hear the laughing.
It sounds like a lot of water
but it's the water that was stored in the fractures
that the borehole intersected temporarily.
- [John] What time of year were these borings?
- In the summer, August.
- [Man] You can kind of look at this whole mountain,
it's all fractured in the sediment layers
all through the interior, kind of much like the human body
and that you have veins and arteries and vessels.
If you were to cut your arm off, I would bleed out and die.
If you cut this hole into the top of the mountain,
it too is gonna bleed out and die
of the lifeblood, the water will bleed out of that mountain.
This is an example of what an open pit mine does
to the adjacent properties, look around.
Within a mile or two, all of the water drains.
- If this was an area that had an extensive amount of water,
we would expect to see much different vegetation types.
- [Man] These pictures here of the mountain,
show us heavy vegetation in large groves of Oak trees,
with single Oak trees scattered all over the mountain.
Many of these trees are three to 400 years old.
That means groundwater.
A full-grown Oak tree can use up to 700 gallons per day
in a hot day.
- If Liberty Quarry is allowed to be built at that location,
the Sierra Club believes the wildlife corridor
for all intents and purposes, is closed.
- My name is Matt Rahn,
I represent San Diego State University.
This is the last fully protected free-flowing river,
the last inland to coastal linkage containing rare
and endangered species in a pristine location,
and I like to remind people
that this is what Southern California looked like
100 years ago.
- How will we maintain a functional linkage
if the proposed quarry is permitted?
Perhaps a catapult is in order.
(audience laughing)
It's been a long day.
(audience applauding)
- [John] Well, you brought the house down.
(everybody laughing)
(speaking in Luiseno)
- My name is Raymond Basquez Jr,
I'm a member of the Pechanga Indian Reservation.
I'd like to thank you all for allowing me
to come and speak to you today
and share with you a little bit of our history
through our cultural creation story.
On behalf of my father and my mother, Anita,
my grandfather and my grandmother, Arthur and Frances,
my great grandfather and grandmother, Juan and (indistinct),
my great-great-grandmother Viviana (indistinct),
my great-great-grandfather Lorianna (indistinct),
I thank you for allowing me to speak today.
In the beginning, our people were created all things
in the Exva Temeeku, Exva meaning a sunny place,
Temeeku meaning a place of the sun.
Tuukumit & Tamaayawut,
the father and the mother came together
and they made all things, the earth-
- 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.
- 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.
- So my conclusions are this proposed quarry
would be outside of the boundaries
of the major contributing features,
unless you were impacting
one of the central elements of the story,
you would probably not have a significant impact.
- What was astounding is that somebody who had made a career
of being an expert on Indian tribes,
Indian culture and Indian people,
could actually put forth that kind of an argument
for that purpose of completely undermining our culture
and that religious site,
was about as unacceptable as it gets.
- The phrase that comes to mind first, preposterous.
I mean honestly, we're having someone
parse out our creation story.
Yes, you are vilified, how can you possibly do that?
I got very angry, I got very angry.
I was incensed as they said an LA Times.
(suspenseful music)
It is despicable, despicable,
and they do it with a straight face.
Do not let them tell you our history
because they don't know it.
(audience clapping)
- [John] 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 clapping)
- When Granite brought in Lynne Sebastian,
she didn't know that we have a PhD on our staff
named Dr. Lisa Woodward, and she's gonna push back.
- Good afternoon, my name is Lisa Woodward.
I'm the archivist and researcher
for the Pechanga Tribes Cultural Resources Department.
- Now we have a battle of experts.
We've leveled the playing field.
- John P. Harrington, a linguist and ethnographer
employed by the Bureau of American Ethnology,
collected approximately 20,000 pages of field notes
on Luiseno language and culture.
All the stories mentioned Exva Temeeku
as the first place for starting everything.
- The Harrington notes, they're extensive.
To go through all of them takes a years,
and that was actually Lisa's project.
- So not only is there written notes,
there's also photographs and sound recordings.
When Liberty Quarry started,
I came across a page that appeared to be Temecula.
A barely legible hand-drawn map
of the Temecula and Elsinore Valley
was located in Harrington's microfilmed field notes.
This particular image
had a bunch of scratches running through it
and some debris on it,
and there's only so much you can glean from even zooming in
because of just the poor quality of the microfilm.
I contacted
the Smithsonian's National Anthropological Archives,
where Harrington's collection is housed.
Can you scan frame 237 of real 119,
because it's a map and I think it's Temecula region.
And they said, sure.
So they sent me a TIF and it was beautiful.
(calm music)
Just the detail, even not just place names,
but where the Indians were driven out,
talking about the Temecula eviction,
and the location of where the Temecula treaty was signed.
So historic information as well related to the tribe.
- For there to be a written map
with geographic descriptions, that's a miracle.
This is Christmas day, this is amazing.
- We felt that that moment, oh, this is a piece of proof
that's gonna work in this system that we have to function.
This is a piece of proof that's gonna maybe save the place.
- How did that end up on a map?
Why did the tribal person give that information
so private and so religious?
The reason why is that people are dying away.
Our culture, people aren't speaking our language,
even in the 20s and 30s when they're making these notes.
They're like in the future, you're gonna need this.
And we found it and we battled with it.
- The story of Pu'eska
is that that's where the Kaamalam lived.
They lived on Pu'eska Mountain.
The map say, Kaamalam Pomki, Kaamalam's house.
It's not just naming a specific location,
it's written over the whole mountain.
This map is of particular importance
because independently collaborates
the oral history of the tribe regarding place names
and the locations in the Temecula region.
The yellow arrow indicates to the general area
of the proposed Liberty Quarry project.
So when I showed the map, when the Commissioner said,
wow it wasn't until I saw that map, that it really sunk in,
the connection that tribe has to this land.
- [Man] Here's what I'm wondering,
I mean, we have original field notes
based on first-person interviews,
more than 100 years with maps,
or with that linear
that we have to go find something on the site
to not recognize- (audience clapping)
- [Leslie] We are not disputing the concept of a TCP
as being appropriate for that general area,
there's no dispute there.
And so I don't know how we would mitigate that.
It may not be mitigable under CEQA.
- If I may briefly through the Chair,
with all due respect to the county's archeologist
and tribal liaison,
the number one form of mitigation is avoidance.
There are alternatives here.
(audience clapping)
This is the only ancestral origin place for Pechanga
but there's many other places where you can get gravel.
And just because you might not be able
to mitigate the tribal cultural values,
doesn't mean that you don't consider it,
that you sweep it under the rug, that it's inconvenient.
That's not what the law says.
And then you need to make a statement
of overriding considerations that 99 possible jobs
outweighs devastating the tribal religious practices
of the Pechanga and other Luiseno people.
That is the burden of proof.
(audience applauding)
- [John] The thing that bothers me a little bit
is if you wanted to look
at all of the tribes in Southern California,
it seems to me that everything is a TCP.
And I mean, you don't know where the boundaries are.
If there are no boundaries put down,
then how does anyone figure out,
what seems to be valid or not?
I mean, you could take this all the way down
to the Pacific Ocean or God knows where.
- My name's Tom King.
I have to tell you that I am unfortunately,
the inventor of the term, Traditional Cultural Property,
which I never quite anticipated
would get acronymed into TCP,
which sounds like a brand of toilet paper.
We were trying to get around the imposition
of Euro-American concepts
on groups that were not of Euro-American origin.
One of the fundamental precepts
is that it is not for us white eyes,
it is not for us Anglos,
it is not for us government bureaucrats
to say what is important to a tribe.
It is for a tribe to say what is important to a tribe
and to say what its boundaries are.
- Well, but boundaries may not matter
from the standpoint of true indigenous culture
and the way they look at landscapes,
but we're dealing with a situation
where we're trying to respectfully deal
with those indigenous beliefs in the context
and through the prism of a Eurocentric planning process.
Though that may not be right or that may not be fair,
but that is the process we're engaged in.
And in that process, boundaries do matter and maps matter.
This map is a really important map.
So what we did is we took this historical sketchy map
and using GPS techniques and so forth,
we started to put modern features on that.
This is where the roads roll right now
and what you'll see not surprisingly,
it's the Liberty Quarry is located there, here, not here.
- [Woman] Where they actually show
the highway I15 coming around, that's actually not accurate,
where the highway is now located.
- Okay well, let's take it to one connection
that I've tried to be sensitive to.
Let's just assume for argument's sake,
the Garden of Eden was in Temecula, all right?
And it is in terms of Pechanga,
but is a project like you're proposing,
in that proximity to the Garden of Eden appropriate?
It's further away than the Pechanga Golf Course,
so maybe that's the answer.
- So good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
In case you haven't been counting,
this is the sixth hearing on Liberty Quarry.
- [Man] I think we're ready for motion.
- [John] I can't support the Surface Mining Permit
or the exception to the Noise Ordinance.
Our motion is to deny the project.
- [Man] Second that motion.
- [John] We have a motion and a second, all in favor?
- [All] Aye.
- All opposed? - Nay.
- [John] I'd say four to one vote,
with Commissioner Forest (indistinct).
(audience clapping)
(celebratory music)
- There was jubilation there was 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, there is no question about it.
People were just ecstatic.
- You'd think when you finally have something
going in your favor, this story isn't over yet.
- [Seumus] 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.
- I remember this kind of collective groan
of, argh, we're gonna have to do this all over again?
- [Seumus] Both sides sharpen their arguments
and make their case over the course of three long
and contentious hearings.
[All] One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
(audience shouting)
- I'm glad you got your cheering out of the way early.
- We are not done. - Yes, we are not done.
- We are not going to allow any cheering,
bullying, signs, et cetera.
- Hundreds of people turned down today
for a hearing on our 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-
- We want job, we want job, we want job.
- All of you have some very pretty bright orange hats on
and some of you has some very pretty bright green hats on.
And rather than clap,
you can wave your hat if you wanna clap, okay?
- [Reporter] The people wearing orange
have a vested interest in this.
All the we spoke with live in the Temecula area,
not the case for the green team.
Most we spoke with are Union members
from all over Southern California.
They were bused into Riverside today,
paid by the Union and given a free lunch.
- I saw and walking out
and he had one of the Granite Construction green shirts on
and took the shirt off,
threw it on the ground and was walking away.
And I walked up to him and I was just kinda curious,
"Hey, what's going on?"
And he said, "I'm unemployed right now
and Granite Construction told me to come on out.
And they told us that this was gonna be a career fair."
(suspenseful music)
- Granite is a good company,
a good employer and a good neighbor.
They've been named
one of the world's most ethical companies.
- Granite has earned it's 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
to let you know that the vast majority of residents
strongly oppose Liberty Quarry.
- [John] Two wagons, very cool.
I hope they're paying you well for this.
(audience laughing)
- The Board of Supervisors was larger.
There was so many more people there,
there was more at stake.
- With the Board of Supervisors 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)
(fox barking) (water running)
Our virgin stream reps behind this hill
and would later flow beside Granite industrial site.
The music he 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,
we can understand your feelings about this
but we have to vote the way we feel is the right way.
- 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 gonna 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 have evolved and 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 Masiele, her role was to tell the creation story
in such a beautiful motherly voice,
and I thought that was an amazing asset for us
in the hearing.
- Chixeemal arranged for the cremation for Wuyoot
on Pu'eska Mountain.
They sing songs and danced.
This was the first time
they 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 all 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 sanitize 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 an 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
where he was coming from,
it felt more like a personal attack actually.
At some point he wasn't attacking
our refutation of a report,
our information that we put out there,
he was attacking the tribe.
- The land that we have today that our casino sits on,
we didn't get to pick that land.
It was not our choice to be on that land.
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 edge of self our seat.
- This Project,
there are just too many uncertainties for me.
I just cannot support this project.
(audience applauding)
Please vote.
(machine beeping)
(audience cheering)
(celebratory music)
- 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)
- [Woman] Thank you.
- [Woman] It was the biggest celebration you can imagine.
(audience applauding and cheering)
- Everybody did a fantastic job and we did it.
(uplifting music)
- We're all breaking bread and it was finally over.
We won twice, and we played by their rules.
- [Woman] There was a piece of it that reignited our pride.
We took a side and we fought with all of our passion.
- Despite a denial at both the Planning Commission
and at the Supervisor's Hearing, it wasn't quite over.
We call them zombie projects, they can go on for decades.
- I said to the tribe, we have to win every time.
They just have to win once.
- [Seumus] 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.
I thought we got rid of all you folks, 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.
- For 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 applicants.
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 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 gonna take another run at this.
They're gonna propose another project.
- 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.
Motion carries three, two.
The EIR certified, that concludes our item.
- That's when all the air got sucked out of the room.
(suspenseful music)
That was the end of the road.
The mining project is approved on that date.
- We assume Granite had some role behind the scenes
to get this item on the agenda and they approve the EIR,
and we were just flabbergasted, I mean.
- I know John Tavaglione well,
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 wanna put people back to work.
(calm music)
- [Seumus] From the community's perspective,
it seemed the politics hijacked the process.
On May 18th, 2012, press enterprise communist,
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 gonna remind everyone,
there you go, you can wave your hats instead of applauding,
we know the colors by now.
- The County created what's called a fast-track system.
Projects could move forward,
skipping some of the normal environmental steps.
- No project and certainly not this one,
should rise to the level
where it's able to bypass fundamental processes
of this County, particularly ones that engage the public.
- There's no rush, what's the urgency here, for 100 jobs?
- I don't wanna be redundant but I do wanna respond,
several speakers have said it's about money.
In one respect, they're absolutely correct.
Aggregate costs is based primarily
on the cost of transportation.
Could I ask for a quiet in the room?
- [John] We can use the deputies if you'd like,
but we prefer not to.
- [Woman] Do you have enough handcuffs for everybody?
- [John] We do.
- This is a terrible debacle in our County, I'm embarrassed.
And I'm apologetic to my citizens
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."
- We do have a motion and a second, please vote.
Motion passes, three, two.
(somber music)
- Here we are as a tribe, following the rules,
following the guidelines, telling our creation story,
spilling our guts out about it,
and at the end still wasn't good enough.
Still after all that.
- We were playing by the rules
and they kept on moving the goalpost.
There was no winning for us.
- That's when we knew
this system does not favor protection at these places.
- My family was ready to give up hope,
but SOS Hills was ready to keep moving on.
Kathleen Hamilton was always looking ahead
and positive and she wasn't gonna 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,
just live with it, we were not gonna 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 gonna 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?
This thing is not gonna 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,
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 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.
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.
And if we don't do our job, they're gonna be asking us
why is there a mine on that mountain?
And that is a really important question
we have to ask ourself, and in one of these days,
we're gonna have to answer to the next generation.
(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
and I was like, oh, that's a weird request.
Okay, I'll meet you guys at the top of the parking garage.
- There you go, (speaks in Luiseno).
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.
(celebratory music)
(people clapping and cheering)
You may know it as the former Liberty Quarry project site.
- I was elated, I was so happy, I was shaking.
There was this big celebration.
- Like total jubilation, it was the best day ever.
- I was smiling and laughing so much, 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.
- We first tendered an offer to Granite in July,
and we've been in serious discussions ever since.
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.
(audience applauding)
(calm music)
- I just remember to try not to cry,
it was just so marvelous.
- My stomach started to settle down
because I'd 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.
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 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.
- My research focuses on--
- We didn't have PhDs on staff,
we didn't have tribal member lawyers
that had enough experience, and we didn't have a business
that allowed us the financial positioning
to be able to even contemplate doing this
a few years before that.
It's part of our war chest,
it's part of our modern-day arsenal to protect these places.
(calm music)
- 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.
- The City Council and the City of Temecula,
hereby proclaim November 15, 2012,
and every November 15th thereafter, Pu'eska Mountain Day.
(crowd clapping)
- 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.
They identified the most important places
and in one case, put it on the map,
so we could use that to fight for that place,
to make sure that it was gonna be here 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.
(wind blowing)
(calm music)