Quarry’s Plans Worsen an Already Rocky Relationship

The neighbors of Padre Transit Mix in Poway have lived with the rock quarry operation for 15 years, and they’ve had enough of it.

The Calmat Co., which gained control of Padre Transit Mix in 1986, is seeking a 30-year extension of its conditional-use permit, which expires Oct. 17.

Calmat also hopes to double its 83-acre sand- and gravel-mining operation and introduce an asphalt plant and an aggregate-minerals processing plant.

Nearby residents say they are not about to stand for it.

The problem, contends Betty Rexford, is trucks carrying rock and sand from the quarry--they travel the narrow road in front of her house--the noise from rock-crushing equipment and the dust.

“We hear the crashing and crunching of the rocks all the time,” said Rexford, who lives half a mile from the quarry. “We’re gearing up all of Poway to keep this out of here. Why should we be known as the sand and gravel capital?”

Calmat representatives argue that any noise will be controlled by use of natural and man-made sound barriers. Dust pollution will be minimized by frequent watering of dirt roads and wherever sand is being transported.

“We’re proposing a state-of-the-art plan, and we feel that we are addressing the issues raised by the neighbors,” said Robert Imler, Calmat’s district manager.

Truck traffic on narrow, residential Beeler Canyon and Creek roads will be eliminated by building a private road north through to Kirkham Road, said Imler, who added that rock-mining operations and residential areas have coexisted before.

“By and large, it’s a pretty much peaceful coexistence,” he said.

The skeptics remain, however--despite a tour Calmat gave to concerned residents of its other asphalt plants.

“The main thing that I am concerned about is the addition of the asphalt plant, because I think the canyon is going to smell of asphalt and I don’t think anyone wants to get up in the morning and smell it,” said one resident who went on the tour.

“The smell wasn’t real strong (at the other plants), but it certainly was there. It’s like when you smell a skunk. It doesn’t have to be that strong, but you sure know it’s there.”

The city is waiting for completion of an environmental impact report to determine the effects of an expanded plant, not only on neighbors but also on a new industrial park to the north.

The road Calmat proposes to build would divert the sand and gravel trucks away from residential areas and toward Pomerado Business Park, which includes light industry and also hopes to attract retail businesses.

Poway City Councilman Robert Emery said he is skeptical of the quarry. “They don’t have a very good track record” of living up to former promises, he said.

When Padre Transit Mix received its operating permit in 1975, conditions included road improvements and landscaping. According to neighbors, the company failed to comply with those conditions for more than 12 years.

After Calmat applied for an extension and expansion of the permit in 1987, neighbors submitted to the city a list of conditions Padre Transit Mix had not met. Only then were tasks such as paving roads and fencing the property completed, said Rexford, the neighbor.

She is concerned that Calmat complied with residents’ demands only because it wanted approval of the permit extension, and that it will stop complying someday. Neighbors still complain of noisy trucks driving at high speed outside the permit-stipulated hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Rexford said.

Calmat, meanwhile, contends that in 1987 it had been involved in Poway for only a year and that when it heard of the neighbors’ complaints, it complied immediately.

“We recognize that we have to meet our commitments and live with our neighbors,” said Severo Chavez, assistant manager of Calmat’s San Diego region. “We operate in the long run.”

“We will be actively participating with the community for the entire time we’re there,” Imler said. “That’s the only way we know how to operate.”

The Poway facility has 50 employees, and, although the operation would double in size, Imler said that only about a dozen new workers would be hired under the expansion.

The area is rich with valuable minerals found in gravel, cement and asphalt and vital to buildings and roads.

“All the south Poway area is identified as a mineral resource zone by the state Department of Conservation,” said Steve Streeter, assistant planning director for the city.

“Mineral deposits are where they’re at,” Imler said. “We have to operate where the deposits are, and (south Poway) happens to be one of the better deposits in San Diego County and one of the few remaining ones.”

Calmat operates similar mining and asphalt facilities in Pala, Mission Valley and Carroll Canyon on Black Mountain Road.

In the past four years, Calmat has paid $2,000 in fines for three minor permit violations of air pollution rules, according to the county Air Pollution Control District. A public nuisance violation regarding the Carroll Canyon site is pending.