Tag Archives: Granite Construction Corporation

Petition, Sacred Sites

AB 742

BILL NUMBER: AB 742 AMENDED BILL TEXT

AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 16, 2011
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 31, 2011

INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Nestande Bonnie Lowenthal
( Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Roger Hernández )
( Principal coauthor: Senator Wyland )
( Coauthors: Assembly Members Allen, Atkins, Beall, Block, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley, Butler, Carter, Davis, Eng, Beth Gaines, Gatto, Hagman,
Hill, Hueso, Lara, Ma, Mitchell, V. Manuel Pérez, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Torres, Wieckowski, Williams, and Yamada )
( Coauthors: Senators Harman, Lieu, Padilla, Price, Runner, Strickland, Vargas, and Wolk )

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

An act to amend Section 2773.3 of the Public Resources Code, relating to mining, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 742, as amended, Nestande Bonnie Lowenthal . Tribal gaming: local agencies.
Surface mining: Indian reservations and Native American sacred sites.
(1) The Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 prohibits a person, with exceptions, from conducting surface mining operations unless a permit is obtained from, a reclamation plan is submitted to and approved by, and financial assurances for reclamation have been approved by, the lead agency for the operation. Existing law prohibits a lead agency from approving a reclamation plan for a surface mining operation for gold, silver, copper, or other metallic minerals or financial assurances for the operation if the operation is located on, or within one mile of, a Native American sacred site and is located in an area of special concern, unless certain criteria are met.

This bill would also prohibit a lead agency from approving a reclamation plan for an aggregate products operation if the operation is located on or within 2,000 yards of the external boundaries of an Indian reservation and is on or within 5,000 yards of a Native American sacred site, and is on or within 4,000 yards of the Santa Margarita River or an aquifer that is hydrologically connected to the river, unless the tribe whose reservation is nearest the operation consents to the operation.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

    THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1. Section 2773.3 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:
2773.3. (a) In addition to other reclamation plan requirements of this chapter and regulations adopted by the board pursuant to this chapter, a lead agency may not approve a reclamation plan for a surface mining operation for gold, silver, copper, or other metallic minerals or financial assurances for the operation, if the operation is located on, or within one mile of, any Native American sacred site and is located in an area of special concern, unless both of the following criteria are met:
(1) The reclamation plan requires that all excavations be backfilled and graded to do both of the following:
(A) Achieve the approximate original contours of the mined lands prior to mining.
(B) Grade all mined materials that are in excess of the materials that can be placed back into excavated areas, including, but not limited to, all overburden, spoil piles, and heap leach piles, over the project site to achieve the approximate original contours of the mined lands prior to mining.
(2) The financial assurances are sufficient in amount to provide for the backfilling and grading required by paragraph (1).
(b) In addition to other reclamation plan requirements of this chapter and regulations adopted by the board pursuant to this chapter, a lead agency may not approve a reclamation plan for an aggregate products operation if the operation is located on or within 2,000 yards of the external boundaries of an Indian reservation and is on or within 5,000 yards of a site that is a Native American sacred site and is on or within 4,000 yards of the Santa Margarita River or an aquifer that is hydrologically connected to that river, unless the tribe whose reservation is nearest the operation consents to the operation.
(c) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meaning meanings :
(1) “Native American sacred site” means a specific area that is identified by a federally recognized Indian Tribe, Rancheria or Mission Band of Indians, or by the Native American Heritage Commission, as sacred by virtue of its established historical or cultural significance to, or ceremonial use by, a Native American group, including, but not limited to, any an area containing a prayer circle, shrine, petroglyph, or spirit break, or a path or area linking the circle, shrine, petroglyph, or spirit break with another circle, shrine, petroglyph, or spirit break.
(2) “Area of special concern” means an area in the California desert that is designated as Class C or Class L lands or as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern under the California Desert Conservation Area Plan of 1980, as amended, by the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, pursuant to Section 1781 of Title 43 of the United States Code.
SEC. 2. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

To protect from imminent destruction Native American reservations and sacred sites threatened by proposed aggregate products mining operations, it is necessary for this measure to take effective immediately. All matter omitted in this version of the bill appears in the bill as amended in the Assembly, March 31, 2011.
(JR11)

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Earth, Sacred Sites

Pechanga Sponsors Legislation to Protect Tribe’s Place of Creation

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Pechanga Sponsors Legislation to Protect Tribe’s Place of Creation

Pechanga Indian Reservation, CA, August 4, 2011 – The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians announced that it is sponsoring a bipartisan bill with more than 30 co‐authors in the State Legislature to protect the mountain that is the very birthplace of creation for Pechanga and other Luiseño tribes from being blasted and excavated as a mine for the next 75 years.

Granite Construction Inc. is seeking Riverside County’s approval of its Surface Mining Permit Application to develop the Liberty Quarry, which would be one of the largest open‐pit hard rock mines in the United States generating 5 million tons of aggregate each year. Located just 500 yards from the Pechanga Indian Reservation, the Liberty Quarry would produce 270 million tons of aggregate by blasting a crater as wide as 117 football fields and as deep as the Empire State Building is tall less than ¼ of a mile from the heavily populated City of Temecula.

Upon reviewing Liberty Quarry’s Draft Environmental Impact Report, the Pechanga Band determined the 414‐acre project would cause irreparable and immitigable destruction to this place of creation. “Our Tribe participated in the environmental review process and took extraordinary and unprecedented steps to provide Riverside County with ethnographic and other evidence detailing the significance of this area to Pechanga,” said Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro.

Granite’s own ethnographic experts acknowledged the site as significant to the Tribe. Published in May 2009, the Ethnography Study noted, “…it is clear that much if not all of the Liberty Quarry project area… lies within a landscape that the Pechanga Tribe regards as spiritually significant… As such, this landscape is eligible for National Register of Historic Properties nomination as a TCP [Traditional Cultural Property] district.”

County planning staff in March, however, wrote in the Final Environmental Impact Report “…the County respectfully disagrees with the Tribe’s characterization of the area in and around the Project Site as TCP” and found the devastating cultural impacts to be “less than significant” under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

“That county planners deemed our Tribe’s place of creation ‘insignificant’ under CEQA despite overwhelming and independent evidence to the contrary is disgraceful,” said Tribal Chairman Macarro. “Because county planners have failed to honor the spirit of the law designed to protect such areas, we are forced to seek additional legislation to protect our place of creation from destruction.”

Authored by Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal, D‐Long Beach, AB 742 would amend the Public Resources Code to include aggregate operations on the list of mining activities restricted near Native American sacred sites.

“I believe respecting one another’s religious beliefs is key to a healthy society,” said Lowenthal. “And there’s probably no better place to demonstrate this than on a mountain where some believe life itself began,” she said.

Scholars say that Káamalam Pomki is analogous to the Garden of Eden as the location of creation or to the Wailing Wall or Sistine Chapel in terms of spiritual significance.

“It is not an option to tell our future generations that their place of creation, the basis of their history and their very identity, used to be here,” said Macarro. “As any other People would, we will bring to bear all of the resources at our disposal to protect this sacred area from the permanent destruction this massive mine would cause.”

The controversial Liberty Quarry is also opposed by the City of Temecula, the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve that is immediately adjacent to the proposed area, thousands of residents, hundreds of businesses, more than 150 physicians that live and work in the Temecula Valley, Southern California Indian Tribes, and every federally recognized Luiseño Tribe.

Proponents of the Liberty Quarry argue that the mine will create a total of 99 jobs. However, the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College analyzed Granite’s economic impact report and found “these quarry jobs will be more than offset by job losses in tourism, real estate, construction, and agriculture.”

Calculating all of the benefits and the costs associated with the proposed Liberty Quarry, the Rose Institute estimates that, “the quarry will reduce property values by $540 million and cost the region an additional $80 million per year” with an “estimated total cumulative net negative impact of $3.6 billion to the region.”

Watch Granite Construction take the land apart at about 4:30

Real-life AVATAR drama re-enacted in Temecula Granite Construction Corporation (RDA) vs. citizens of Temecula and surrounding areaWill Regional Government side with Big Business Against Local Government?

Petition

SAVE THE LAST RIVER

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Granite Construction Corporation’s proposed Liberty Quarry project is inconsistent with the needs and land use within the targeted area of southern Riverside County.

The Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve is part of uninterrupted forest adjacent to the proposed quarry. On this same land, the existence of the last wildlife corridor between the coastal Santa Ana Mountains and inland Palomar Mountains is threatened. The Santa Margarita is the last free flowing river in Southern California and is in danger of becoming polluted. Failure to consider cultural, environmental, and social issues beyond the letter of the law will lead to irreversible consequences within the vicinity of the site and at locations distant from the site. These include threatened loss of Native American Sacred Sites, pollution of groundwater, pollution of the Santa Margarita River from quarry runoff, pollution of the drinking water at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendelton, loss of San Diego State University-based research funding and ultimately, loss of the LAST pristine, wild river and wildlife corridor of Southern California’s American West.


Take Action

“All it will take for Granite Construction to triumph is for good citizens to do nothing.” —Edmund Burke (with respect)
A 1,000 residents of Temecula gathered to make their voice heard

Don’t let cynicism rob you of your will to speak up for what you know is right. If you elect to do nothing to speak for the land which cannot speak for itself, the corporation will win through the default of your inaction.

Send the petition below, post on FaceBook, make calls to your elected representatives, tell your friends, read more about what we all stand to lose if Granite Construction Corporation has their way. They may win anyway. Guaranteed you will sleep better at night knowing that you at least tried to make a difference.

Help ensure the survival of this important area, including the last free-flowing river in Southern California by signing this petition: [emailpetition id=”1″]

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