Wrightwood Residents Battle a Quarry Approved Years Before They Knew It Existed

Residents of Wrightwood, a mountain community of about 5,067 near Mt. Baldy, recently mobilized against a massive calcium carbonate quarry planned for 420 acres in Lone Pine Canyon, unaware that key approvals had already been secured seven years earlier.

After a 2019 San Bernardino County Planning Commission vote of 3 to 2 granted vested rights to the project, the quarry escaped a full environmental review. Ownership later passed to Grand Lone Pine Canyon Enterprises LLC, a West Covina firm linked to Taiwan’s Treiss International Corp.

Local opposition coalesced into the Lone Pine Canyon Protection Alliance, which has gathered over 7,600 petition signatures and secured backing from Rep. Judy Chu and state Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares. State wildlife officials have raised concerns about impacts on bumblebees, desert bighorn sheep and golden eagles, and highlighted gaps in the reclamation plan’s protection of a key wildlife corridor.

Despite mounting resistance, vested rights mean the quarry can proceed unless overturned in court or through new policy. A petition filed in July argues the 2019 decision was legally flawed, noting mining had lapsed since the 1970s and thus did not meet state thresholds for vested rights.