The Navajo Community Planning Group has reinstated the Mission Gorge Rock Quarry
Committee to serve for another year at the group’s monthly meeting on May 14.
The committee will assist Navajo Planners on land-use matters related to the 94-year-old rock quarry, located on Mission Gorge Road just south of Mission Trails Regional Park.
As part of its mission, the committee will review, evaluate, document and report information and actions related to the quarry.
During the planning group’s monthly meeting, board members selected the committee members who will sit on the committee. They hope to add one community member who lives near the quarry to the subcommittee before meeting in June.
“The impact from the blasts is getting a lot stronger,” community member Bee Riley said during the May 14 planning group meeting. “The last several blasts have registered on the Richter Scale.”
Nestled on Mission Gorge Road, the quarry sits adjacent to numerous communities, including San Carlos, Del Cerro, Allied Gardens and Grantville, all located to the quarry’s south and Tierrasanta to its north.
For more than a decade, community members from all neighborhoods have reported flying rocks and debris. On one occasion in 2014, a Tierrasanta resident reported having a rock fly into their Tierrasanta home.
Community member Alan Riley stated that residents understand the blasting is necessary, but there is a need to assess what happens with each blast to better control future blast events.
Superior Ready Mix has controlled mining rights in the gorge since 1954, but the gorge has been an open-pit mine since 1930.
According to Clean Air for Mission Gorge, Vulcan Materials Company bought out Superior Ready Mix on December 20, 2024. The company is working on the Grantville Redevelopment Project to offset any environmental and quality of life impacts created by the quarry.
The plan, with the goal to be finished in just four years, aims to foster the expansion of new businesses in the area, improve roads for vehicles and pedestrians and usher in new housing projects to the area. The redevelopment project also looks to prevent further impacts on the San Diego River.
The rock quarry subcommittee will meet in June.
