Cement News

Cupertino hills cement plant shutting down, Texas-based owner says

[ad_1]

Lehigh Hanson cement plant — a major quarry in the hills west of Cupertino and a foundation of many key construction projects across Northern California for nearly a century —  is shutting down, a huge victory for advocates hoping to stop industrial activity in the area.

The company will continue other ongoing operations, including running its distribution center, after the plant shuts down, the Irving, Texas-based company said in its announcement Monday. Opened in 1939 as a vital source for building materials in the booming Bay Area, the plant has not been operating its cement kiln since April 2020.

“The Permanente cement plant has literally provided the foundation for many significant construction projects in the region, including sports arenas, offices for technology companies, distribution centers, educational facilities and hospitals,” said Greg Ronczka, Lehigh Hanson’s vice president of Environment and Sustainability. “The Permanente cement plant has made many valuable contributions to Northern California over the years, and we are now working on a long-term strategy for this site so that it can continue to provide value in the future.”

From the Golden Gate Bridge to San Jose’s airport and Santa Clara County’s many stadiums, universities, hospitals and schools, cement from Lehigh’s Permanente plant in Cupertino has been the most accessible local construction material. But the quarry and cement plant have also been a source of controversy for the pollution and noise it caused in the area, as well as its environmental impact on the Santa Cruz Mountains ecosystem and wildlife.

In the last decade alone, Lehigh has committed over 2,000 environmental violations and has paid about $2.5 million in fines, including for attempting to expand its mining areas and polluting the soil, water and air around the area, a Santa Clara County report shows.

For Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, who has long championed efforts by the county to purchase and rehabilitate the area, the shut-down announcement comes as a victory, though he acknowledged much more still needs to be done.

“After 83 years of operations, the environs surrounding the cement plant have changed considerably, and it simply no longer works to have a large industrial use like a quarry and cement plant in proximity to the suburban communities of Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto,” Simitian said. “While I am gratified by Lehigh’s announcement, there is clearly more to do.”

Lehigh Hanson spokesperson Jeff Sieg said in a statement Tuesday that operations at the site will include processing of existing rock aggregate stock as well as distribution and sales of cement. He said that “there will not be any extraction of materials or expansion of the pit” and added that there was no impact on the site’s current staffing.

While Lehigh Hanson said it will not restart clinker production — lumps of material produced in the manufacture of Portland cement — mining is set to continue, though the company did not specify the use for that material.

The plant’s closure comes less than a year after Santa Clara County announced that it would consider buying the property and shutting down its industrial uses. The county’s proposed plan calls for the area to be used as open space and rehabilitated for public use and preservation.

Any public purchase of the property, also known as the Permanente quarry, would likely cost tens of millions of dollars, and a forced sale could spark years of legal battles.

But the latest plant closure and plans for the quarry’s future are just pieces of a larger history spanning decades of building booms, environmental concerns, legal battles and even a tragic triple homicide.

In October 2011, Shareef Allman, a worker at the quarry, opened fire on his co-workers at the Lehigh quarry, killing three people and wounding six others. Allman was killed the next day when three deputies said they found him crouching behind a vehicle, displaying a handgun in a threatening manner.

Lehigh Hanson owns just over 3,500 acres around the quarry, an area about three times the size of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. In recent decades, it has produced more than half the cement used in the Bay Area and 70% of the cement used in Santa Clara County.

Back in the day, it was more: Cement from the plant was used on massive projects such as the Shasta Dam and Highway 101. But the kilns that Lehigh Hanson said will not be restarted were one of the Bay Area’s worst polluters, ranking at or near the top of regional sites contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and specifically airborne mercury.

As a result, neighboring cities and Bay Area environmental groups had long sought to return the area to nature. But that won’t be an easy feat and could take years to complete.

The Dumbarton Quarry in Fremont, a former 320-foot deep gravel pit that operated from the 1950s to 2007, is one example of a giant industrial scar transformed into new public campgrounds after years of debate, rehabilitation and planning.

Simitian hopes the conversation can be steered to make the Permanente quarry an open space sooner than it did in Fremont.

“This is an opportunity to adapt and envision a new future for the site,” Simitian said. “A future that I hope will build on the three pronged-vision with which I began: cement plant closure, a cessation of quarry activities, and restoration of the site.”

[ad_2]

Source link