In a potentially massive blow to the company's bottom line, the Lehigh Southwest Cement Company could lose its right to sell cement products to state and local government entities, after the state's Office of Mine Reclamation issued a stern 30-day notice to comply on July 20.
Lehigh could lose the privilege of being on the AB 3098 list, an approved list of mining companies that can sell products to government agencies, because of Lehigh and Santa Clara County's inability to quickly approve an updated reclamation plan on the company's mining site located in unincorporated Cupertino. A reclamation plan would see a restoration on portions of the mined land, and any surface mining operation conducted without an approved reclamation plan is a violation of the State Mining and Reclamation Act.
"It would have a huge impact on our businesses," said Tim Matz, Lehigh's corporate director for environmental affairs.
The road to this point began in October 2006, when Santa Clara County issued the quarry an order to prepare an amended reclamation plan and submit it for approval. At the time, Lehigh was told to fix violations, including unstable pit slops and surface mining operations occurring outside the approved reclamation boundary.
extended an additional two years to allow for completion of further geological studies.The July 20 letter from the Office of Mine Reclamation, which is under the state's Department of Conservation, states that the quarry should have come into compliance by December 2007. The schedule, however, was
However, while still under the original October 2006 order to comply, the quarry operators expanded operations outside the approved boundary and started placing materials in a hotly contested area known as the East Materials Storage Area. County officials then issued another notice of violation on June 20, 2008, regarding the illegal stockpiling and dumping outside the reclamation boundary.
In a status letter to the State Mining and Geology Board on June 9, the county stated that environmental review of the amended reclamation plan is underway. The letter states that the current target date for "achieving full compliance" at the quarry is June 2012, thus creating a "best case" schedule that would be five years longer than the original compliance date of December 2007. But this proved to be too long of a wait for the Office of Mine Reclamation.
Another bone of contention from the office is that the county is reviewing two reclamation plans for the quarry: a comprehensive reclamation plan for the entire quarry and another plan just for the East Material Storage Area. According to the California Code of Regulations, a surface mining operation like Lehigh shall have no more than one approved reclamation plan applicable to the operation, according to the July 20 letter.
In order to get back on the AB 3098 list, Lehigh must prepare and submit for approval to Santa Clara County a reclamation plan that encompasses all areas disturbed by surface mining operations and include those areas conducted outside the approved reclamation boundary.
Matz said that Lehigh cannot comment further on being able to meet the 30-day deadline--set for Aug. 19--as the company still needs to meet and plan. He also could not comment on how much of Lehigh's business comes from the government.
The company in a July 25 written statement said that the action could have "devastating impacts." Materials produced by the quarry and cement plant are used for roads, freeways, bridges, canals, schools and infrastructure, according to Lehigh. Past projects include the San Jose airport expansion and the Bay Bridge reconstruction.
Lehigh officials have proudly stated over the years that the company provides about half of the cement used in the Bay Area and roughly 70 percent of cement used in Santa Clara County.
The AB 3098 list issue has been quietly simmering since a February public hearing in which the Office of Mine Reclamation first discussed removing Lehigh from the privileged list.
To date, the citizen group Bay Area Clean Environment, formerly No Toxic Air, has collected 25,857 signatures from people demanding Lehigh be removed from the AB 3098. Cupertino City Councilman Barry Chang, a vocal and visible Lehigh critic, is a board member and founder.
Chang, along with a couple dozen residents and members of BACE, rallied in support of the OMR warning on July 25 in Rancho San Antonio County Park.
"I wouldn't use the word 'victory,' but this is an affirmation of a group of citizens that marshaled some facts and made a difference," said Richard Adler, a Cupertino resident and board member of BACE. "Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call for Lehigh and the county to stop dilly-dallying around and start doing what these laws and regulations state."
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