Rocky Battles : Development: Proposal to expand mining operations in Corona has drawn protest from nearby residents.

CORONA — For more than a century, mining companies could declare much of the mountainous and largely uninhabited Temescal Valley their own.

The sand, gravel, tin and clay mining operations had gone about their business without the burden of government restrictions and the worry of having residents just next door.

But as new homes have crept closer and closer to their operations, the miners of one of the richest deposits of aggregate mineral resources in Southern California are finding themselves in bitter battles with the new neighbors.

As thousands of acres of prized residential real estate are being developed in the Temescal Valley, company officials fear that city councils will be more receptive to vocal residents than mining officials, who often mention the adage “rocks don’t vote.”

“Mines aren’t quite as cute as Stephens’ kangaroo rats,” said mining consultant Donna McCormick, referring to the endangered species that has blocked development of hundreds of acres of land in western Riverside County.

“It’s very difficult to fight emotion,” she added. “You can say you’re going to do this and going to do that. Unfortunately (opponents) are so entrenched that no amount of public relations is going to turn them around.”

In the most recent battle, All American Asphalt, which has operated on a 180-acre site near Corona for the past 20 years, has proposed expanding its operations 53 acres to within 800 feet of homes to the north. Mining would take place about 50 feet from the open-space property line of the development.

Already, the mining company has lost Round 1. About 100 residents packed a Planning Commission meeting in March to oppose the expansion. After a heated debate, the commission voted unanimously to turn down the plans, saying that there are too many uncertainties over the impact of mining and blasting so close to homes. The company is appealing to the Corona City Council on May 15.

Much of the opposition has come from residents at Four Seasons, a new, 441-home development north of the proposed expansion area. Many of the residents say they were not told they live so close to a mine, and they were alarmed when they felt the first blasts from the site.

“I went home from work one day and felt so many tremors,” said Art Villarreal, who lives in Four Seasons. “Soon I began to wonder, ‘Why are there so many earthquakes?’ Then I found out that they were mining blasts.”

But company officials stress that the expansion will not bring the mining any closer to homes than it already is and that the blasts will be monitored by a third-party seismologist.

Still, some residents claim that even the monitored blasts done so far have been enough to cause significant damage to their homes.

In one of the more extreme cases, Claire Husted said the blasting has caused $81,000 worth of damage to her home, located just several hundred feet over a knoll from the All American mine. When blasting began about eight years ago, Husted said, she began to notice cracks in her walls, floors and ceilings.

“It’s worse than an earthquake,” she said. “It’s like you’re in Vietnam.”

Soon the cracks grew to almost 2 inches wide and several yards long. Two years ago, she and her husband were forced to tear down and replace three rooms in their 60-year-old home. Husted said All American engineers told her the house was settling.

“It never settled in 60 years, not even a hairline crack,” Husted said. “Then with every blast it got worse and worse.”

Although their insurance company payed for the repairs, it dropped their policy soon after, Husted said. And just weeks after the repairs were done, the cracks began to show again. They have since been unable to sell their secluded, 5-acre ranch to a developer because of the damage, she said.

“There’s no justice,” said Husted, who has brought her case in heated sessions before the Corona City Council. “There’s nothing you can do. I’ve gone to everyone clear up to the President of the United States.”

Mobile-home owners at a site nearby say that their homes, too, have suffered significant damage.

Still, All American Asphalt officials argue that no one has ever proven that the blasts caused the damage to homes. Rather, they point out that a host of other factors, such as soil conditions, other seismic activity and water runoff could be the cause. They also said Husted’s claim already has been brought before a Riverside County court arbitrator, who threw her suit out.

“There’s a difference between feeling a blast and having a blast cause some of the damage,” said McCormick, who has been working with All American on the expansion plans. She added that nearby housing tracts and the new Interstate 15 have required blasting, not just All American.

“Unfortunately, they are all getting tarred by the same brush,” McCormick said. “. . . It’s all assumed that all the blasting is caused by All American Asphalt.”

Residents near other mining companies to the south also say that they have damage. Shirley Sawyer, who lives in El Cerrito, has a 24-foot crack through the width of her house. Other rooms also have significant cracks.

“It’s kind of like a sonic boom,” Sawyer said of the blasts. “It jars the life out of your house.”

Still, she hasn’t pressed a claim against either Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing or Santa Ana River Rock, the two major mining companies nearby, in part because the alternative to having the mining firms would be to have a residential area next door and because she sees mining as an important revenue source for the area.

“I haven’t felt I needed to,” she said. “. . . The mining companies have been a buffer zone between me and other things coming in I didn’t like.”

Still, Sawyer is among the residents who warn that the same sort of damage she has had will happen to homes in the proposed Eagle Valley, a 3,200-home development planned for just east of the mining areas. Some mining companies also point out other problems, such as dust and heavy truck traffic, that could irritate the new neighbors and force them to limit their operations.

“In struggles between landowners and mining interests, mining interests often lose,” David R. Saunders, an attorney for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, said at a recent hearing to annex Eagle Valley to Corona.

But Dennis Bushore, the project manager of Eagle Valley, has said a buffer zone--between a mile and 8,000 feet to the nearest homes--will be sufficient space between homes and the blasting. Further, as a condition of the development, it will be required to inform potential home buyers of the mining companies.

Ironically, it has been urban growth such as the proposed Eagle Valley that has in large part kept the mining companies in business and has warranted their need for expansion. The closer the companies are to development, the cheaper it is to haul aggregates to build homes, businesses and roads, all in heavy demand in western Riverside County. In fact, the price of aggregates, on average, doubles every 20 miles that they are hauled, McCormick said.

Even so, as urban sprawl has moved closer, more conditions have been placed on them, such as the hours of work and intensity of blasts, said Riverside County Supervisor Walt P. Abraham, whose district includes the Temescal area.

“The mining and citrus companies were here prior to any of the residents,” Abraham said. “It used to be some of them had no conditions at all. What’s happened is air quality has gotten into the act; the environment has gotten into the act.

“We try to make it as compatible as possible,” he added. “We can’t just shut them down.”

Still, mining companies have accepted the growth and have changed their equipment to make it more efficient and less disruptive to nearby residents.

“You have to be more technically careful so you don’t disturb the neighbors,” said Daniel Sisemore, the president of All American Asphalt. “We’ve been here a long time. As the houses get closer, we have to endeavor to be good neighbors. . . . I don’t blame the people for wanting to live here. We just have to make room for everybody.”

Next week, both sides will meet at Corona Civic Center to try to resolve their differences on the expansion. But the prospects of pleasing everyone are doubtful. As one resident said, the expansion is akin to letting loose “a bull in a China shop.”

“We’d like to see them prosper, but not at our expense,” said Keith Seymour, a Home Gardens resident for 53 years.

Whether the expansion is approved or rejected, disputes between residents and mining companies aren’t expected to end.

“You can see how hard it is (for All American) to get a permit this time,” McCormick said. “There’s going to be a lot of these battles.”