Rolling Stones Gather No Kind Words

Tom and Judy Hunter look at the huge boulders that dot their yard, in the rural Harmony Grove neighborhood west of Escondido, and say they feel like pins in a bowling alley.

The boulders--including one the size of a car--weren’t brought in by a landscape artist or uncovered on the site. They came careening down onto their property from the hillside above them, apparently loosened by mining detonations at the neighboring granite excavation pit.

Last Tuesday afternoon, six boulders tumbled off the hillside, crossed Harmony Grove Road--taking out a substantial piece of pavement--and tore like bulldozers across their back yard. The back half of a storage shed was demolished by one 6-by-5-foot boulder, which continued to roll until it settled into a creekbed 50 yards away.

An even larger boulder came to rest less than 25 yards from the Hunter’s home, crushing a pig pen like so many Lincoln logs. Another destroyed another pig pen. And three other boulders crashed down farther from the house, careening off eucalyptus trees like a crazy pinball game before stopping.

Uneasy Existence

“I stand in the kitchen doing my dishes and I look up at the rocks and boulders that are still up there on the hillside and I wonder if the next one is going to crash through my house,” Judy Hunter says. “When I leave to go to work, I’m never sure what I’ll come home to.”

The hillside across the street from the Hunters’ home is leased to Ashland Granite Co., which is excavating the land for its granite and other material.

An earthen berm was put halfway down the hill, apparently to stop any boulders that might come loose during blasting on the other side of the ridge. But Tuesday’s boulder slide occurred outside the bermed area. It also appeared that at least one boulder rolled over the embankment, like a skateboard ramp.

County officials said the company has a permit to set off detonations to loosen rocks and boulders, but some officials wonder if action should be taken against the company because of last week’s incident.

“I’d be scared to death if I lived there, and there’s still a lot more rocks and boulders up there,” said Jamie Dunn, an aide to county Supervisor John MacDonald, after visiting the site. “It’s a dangerous situation.”

Ashland employees refused to comment on the problem, referring questions to owner Bernard Schedell, who was reportedly out of town and unavailable.

“You can nag all you want, but there will be no story from us,” said a woman in an office at the excavation site. “Until Mr. Schedell, who’s the boss, is back in town, there will be no comment.”

Ongoing Feud

Last week’s episode is the most recent in an ongoing feud between neighbors and Ashland.

Mining at the site originally began some 40 years ago by a different company, before the county laid down rules and regulations to govern quarry work.

The site was last mined in 1982, said Clarence Weiler, who owns the property where the Hunters live as well as other parcels in the area. Early last year, Weiler said, excavation resumed--leading to a protest by him and others that since work there had lapsed for more than one year, Ashland would have to formally apply for a major use permit, which would dictate rules and guidelines for the rock mining operation.

The county’s Department of Planning and Land Use decided that Ashland’s work could continue without a special use permit because of the history of the site. Weiler and others appealed to the Planning Commission, where Ashland successfully argued that some work had been done at the site every year since 1982, thereby protecting the operation, under a so-called grandfather clause, as a legal, nonconforming use.

The Planning Commission deadlocked 3- 3 in January on Weiler’s appeal, thereby effectively upholding the staff decision allowing Ashland to work at the site.

Sara Weiler said that before the appeal was made, Ashland employees would phone neighbors at the base of the hill and give them 15 minutes’ warning that blasting would occur.

After the confrontation over the appeal, however, there have been no more advance notices of blasting, she said, and sometimes as often as twice a week the property is peppered with rocks.

“We’ve had blasts that have blown small rocks, six to eight inches (in size), onto the road, and there have been times when Mr. Hunter has had to duck,” said Weiler, a teacher at Orange Glen High School in Escondido.

“There’s a neighbor on the other side of the hill who has had four-foot-diameter rocks come into her yard,” he said. “Her husband called to complain about the stress they were causing his wife because she was pregnant, and the man’s answer was, ‘I didn’t get her pregnant. That’s your problem.’

“One time the man told us, ‘The next time I blast, I’ll give you 20 bucks so you can take your kids to Chuck E. Cheese,’ ” Weiler complained.

His communications with Ashland have come to a halt, he said. “The last time I talked to (a company official) was three months ago, and he told me to get the hell off his property,” Weiler said. “He thinks we’re trying to shut him down. And we are.”

Watchful Eyes

Tuesday’s boulder roll came about 1:15 p.m., when no one was home.

Now, everyone’s eyes are trained on the boulders that still rest on the hillside.

“They may come down on us just from the vibration of the truck traffic back and forth from the pit,” Judy Hunter said.

County officials aren’t sure what to do about the situation. The blasting apparently is legal, said Dunn in MacDonald’s office.

Randy Hurlburt, deputy director for the codes division of the county’s Department of Planning and Land Use, said the pit operation also is legal. “We’re looking into possible remedies (for the boulder slides), but it’s not clear what we can do,” he said.

The California Highway Patrol reports no incidents or complaints along Harmony Grove Road, according to spokesman Jerry Bohrer. “But we’re very concerned by it,” he said.

A spokesman for the county roads department said officials knew of the damage caused to the road by the boulders, “but the blasting contractor had them repaired the following day.”

The Sheriff’s Department, which issues the blasting permits, is studying the situation as well.

The Weilers, meanwhile, are not sitting back. They’ve contacted an attorney to consider filing charges against the company and may seek a court order to stop the blasting.

And the Hunters say they look at the boulders every time they stand at the kitchen window.