TEMECULA -- Information and emotion were present at Tuesday's open house meeting on a proposed granite quarry just south of the city.

While some in attendance found the data presented by Granite Construction Co. hard to swallow, company representatives said the best they can do is keep providing information so the public can form its own opinion on the project.

Gary Johnson, aggregate resource manager for Granite, said about 70 people were present during a morning session, and there were about 60 people viewing Granite's displays during the evening session at Temeku Hills Country Club.

Johnson said the format allowed people to get information on the issues that concerned them the most, and spend as much or as little time as they wanted on noise, air quality, traffic impacts and economic benefits.

Not everyone believed the data.

"I'm impressed with your misrepresentations," Ronald Glusac, 62, of French Valley, told Johnson.

Glusac said he took issue the most with the air quality reports. Johnson said anyone who can find specific problems with the reports is encouraged to point out the perceived flaws.

"There are opponents who 'diss' your information, but can't show you what is supposed to be incorrect," Johnson said.

As for the criticism that having hired consultants analyze the proposed project taints the information, Johnson said there is no benefit to Granite to have anything other than accurate data.

"We have gone way out of our way to get the best consultants to do the best analysis," he said. "This will all be peer-reviewed. The county, South Coast Air District, the California Air Resource Board, the city of Temecula, Redhawk (homeowners association) and San Diego State University have all hired their own air quality experts to review our report. It's in our best interest to have a report that is technically defensible."

The proposed 155-acre quarry would sit on 414 acres in Riverside County slightly north of the San Diego County line and west of Interstate 15 near Rainbow Valley Boulevard. The proposal requires approval by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.

Besides the 10 Granite representatives at the meeting, about 25 members of Save Our Southwest Hills -- an organization opposed to the quarry -- showed up, a representative said. The organization had representatives stationed outside the open house to counter the presentations and pass out their own informational fliers.

"What I see is PR. They are loving you to death and telling you anything to placate you," said Kathleen Hamilton, president of SOS Hills. "Judging by the photos and the displays, it looks so benign. What they are going to do is devastate that mountain, but they are making it look like they are digging a backyard pool."

A visual illustration of the quarry project, by way of a diorama that had removable pieces indicating phases of the project and how they would alter the hills, caused an audible response from Temecula resident Nancy DiLullo. DiLullo would gasp each time another layer of the diorama was lifted out to denote where the entrance roads, the crushing area and the quarry mining area would be located.

"That didn't help their cause," she said after walking to another information station. "That visual made such an impact -- but probably not what they intended."

Her husband, Sam DiLullo, said the open house seemed one-sided as Granite was outlining the benefits of the project without anyone in the same room offering a rebuttal.

"They've told us the benefit of having a hole in a mountain, the benefit of blasting, the benefit of reduced traffic -- after they increase roads," DiLullo said. "If you compare a quarry with no quarry, what's the benefit? The bottom line, Granite Construction is going to benefit from the profits."

Contact staff writer Nicole Sack at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2616, or nsack@californian.com.