East San Diego County planning group wants to tap brakes on Muslim cemetery in remote Pine Valley
It’s a tale as old as the American West: folks fighting over water. This time, however, the battle brewing in a remote California community is one you’ve likely never heard before. The clash is centered in the normally sleepy community of Pine Valley, which, according to most recent U.S. Census Bureau figures, has a population of 1,645. Although you don’t have to live in town to sign, that figure is close to how many people signed a petition boasting 1,800 signatures that was circulated to Stop SD Crescentwood Cemetery. … Critics argue, though, that it sits above the Campo-Cottonwood Sole Source Aquifer, which serves the groundwater needs of thousands of East County residents. Depending upon whom you talk with, the facility could host as few as four burials a year or as many as 350. The problem … is that “effluvium” from decomposing human bodies could leach into the ground, eventually making its way down and contaminating the aquifer.