In this article I will leave my usual emphasis on insurance issues for home and business owners in California to concentrate on the issue of Granite Construction Company and the Quarry they hope to construct and operate close to Temecula, California. I want this article to be considered as a letter to the Board of Supervisors, as it will be sent to their office upon completion.
On January 30th and February 6th the Riverside County Board of Supervisors will be meeting to consider the possibility of over-turning the decision reached by the Riverside County Planning Commission to not grant permission for the Quarry to be built. Several Community meetings were conducted with large attendance numbers and now it looks as though the same process will be conducted again, and I can only assume Granite hopes the decision will be in their favor.
On June 19, 2011, I wrote an article entitled 'The True Price of Granite' which published in Examiner.com at www.examiner.com. In this article I discussed my own experience as a Claims Adjuster and the unique pricing of Granite Construction for the removal of fire damage debris from the Rancho Bernardo area, which was devastated during the 2007 San Diego firestorm. The outcome of Granite Construction's involvement was a $400,000 payment/settlement to the City of San Diego with no admission of wrong doing. The statement from Granite for the settlement was that Granite wanted to move forward with other projects they had, and desired to put the San Diego wildfire lawsuit behind them.
The business habits of Granite Construction were further revealed in their involvement of the construction of the Hiawatha Light Rail Line which was a joint venture construction project in Minnesota. Granite Construction was one of the companies involved in the joint venture project accused by the Justice Department of not hiring companies qualified as Disadvantaged Business Enterprises to work on the light rail line, when they said they did in fact hire them. The other companies along with Granite denied the charges calling them baseless; however, once again Granite was involved in the settlement of the claims without admitting liability. The total cost of the settlement was $4.6 million.
Granite Construction also faced legal issues involving the planned Ukiah Open Pit Mine. The contention being that in addition to the denuding of the landscape, the run-off from the mine would destroy the quality of the Russian River. The lawsuit was based upon the plans as purposed by Granite for this project.
The projected plan of action for the Liberty Quarry overlooking Temecula is as follows:
Granite would blast at least 10 times per week. The blasting and crushing of this particular type of rock creates fine shards of crystalline silica. Exposure to silica has been shown to cause scaring of the lungs and respiratory disease. Mica is a part of the make up of this rock formation and is more dangerous to breathe than asbestos.
Granite's own environmental report states "This project will result in significant and unavoidable impacts to air quality and traffic."
Also of major significance is the fact the quarry is to be located on the Santa Margarita Ecological Preserve Site.
I urge the Riverside County Board of Supervisors to adhere closely to the decision of the Riverside County Planning Commission and to reject the proposed Liberty Quarry.
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