We've Won Here Before: Stopping the Liberty Quarry

Liberty Quarry was a proposed open-pit aggregate mine by Granite Construction on Pu'éska Mountain, along the Riverside–San Diego county border just south of Temecula — sacred ground to the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians and the same border region this powerline crosses. It drew years of organized opposition from the City of Temecula, the Pechanga, and community and environmental groups. ^[1]

Riverside County denied the project — twice. Rather than risk it returning, the Pechanga moved to retire it permanently. ^[1]

In November 2012, the Pechanga reached a settlement with Granite Construction: the tribe bought 354 acres of the site for $3 million and paid Granite $17.35 million, and Granite agreed not to quarry within six miles north or three miles south of the county border through 2035. The tribe now commemorates the victory as “Pu'éska Mountain Day.” ^[1]

Liberty Quarry is proof of capacity. The same community and the same tribe, working in the same border country the Golden Pacific Powerlink would cross, organized and stopped a large, well-funded project that threatened this landscape. ^[1]

The Temecula Valley — 'Éxva Teméeku — is the ancestral homeland of the Pechanga, who have lived here for more than 10,000 years. That history is a matter of public record; what a community chooses to defend, it has shown it can defend. ^[2]