Santa Clara County looks to make Cupertino quarry’s decision to end cement production legally binding

In the wake of  Lehigh Hanson’s announcement last year that it was ending cement production at its quarry west of Cupertino, Santa Clara County is looking to make the decision to permanently end the nearly-century-old cement kiln’s operations legally binding.

Lehigh, which has played a large role in construction projects across the Bay Area since 1939, has been a point of contention in recent years as residents and environmentalists have spoken out with concerns about the noise and pollution emitted from the plant.

The Irving, Texas-based company announced last year that it wouldn’t be restarting cement production after not having operated the kiln since April 2020. However, the site would still be used as a distribution center.

Last week, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted to hold the company to its word and asked the county’s attorneys to negotiate a legally enforceable agreement between the county and the cement company.

Supervisor Joe Simitian, whose district encompasses the 3,510-acre Lehigh, called it a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to finally wrestle this issue to the ground.”

“This is a facility that has the plant and the quarry taken together that has been in operation for more than a century and that has grown more problematic with every passing decade,” he said. “The history of violations in the last 10 years indicates that this is clearly not an operation that can operate compatibility with the surrounding environment and in compliance with existing federal, state and local law.”

Simitian said he now has three goals: close the plant, stop any new quarrying activity and begin the restoration and reclamation of the property.

The board of supervisors is hoping the county can negotiate the agreement by the end of June.

“If this is real, then it should be something that should be negotiated fairly quickly,” the supervisor said of the timeframe.

In response to the board of supervisors’ decision, Lehigh Hanson spokesperson Jeff Seig said in an email that “we reiterate our ongoing focus on the development of a long-term strategy for the property so that it can continue to provide value in the future.”

The years-long discussion over closing Lehigh intensified last year after a review by the county revealed the plant had racked up more than 2,100 violations and accrued millions of dollars in fines over the last decade.

Locally, the Cupertino plant faced violations for sediment pollution along the Permanente Creek and for the unpermitted expansion of an emergency access road.

In 2015, the company that owns the plant paid $2,550,000 to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Regional Water Quality Control Board for several other violations. Five years later, Lehigh Hanson spent $12 million on pollution control technology across 11 plants in eight states for violating the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, California water codes and other local laws.

In a press release, Cupertino Mayor Hung Wei said it was critical for the city and county to “work together to ensure any future development at the site is a benefit to the surrounding community.

“We’ve lived with the impacts of having a cement plant and quarry for a neighbor for about a century, so it’s exciting to envision a better future,” she said.