|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Demolition has started at the Permanente Cement Plant near Cupertino, a massive manufacturing site that repeatedly ran afoul of environmental regulations before it officially closed three years ago.
It took us more than 100 years to get to this point. It’s going to take a little while to restore and reclaim the site. That’s the hard truth.
Joe Simitian, Former Santa Clara County Supervisor
Heidelberg Materials North America, a multinational corporation that owns the cement plant, announced on Tuesday that it secured the necessary permits and a contractor to move forward with demolition. The plan is to remove approximately 40 structures on a 123-acre site, according to the press release.
The impacted area represents only a sliver of a larger 3,500-acre site that includes Permanente Quarry, also owned by Heidelberg Materials. The vast majority of the land spans the foothills of unincorporated Santa Clara County and includes portions of Palo Alto and Cupertino.
“Since we formally announced the permanent closure of the cement kiln in 2022, we have prioritized listening to residents, businesses and other local stakeholders so we could gather input and feedback on how the site could provide value to the community in the long-term,” Heidelberg Materials executive David Perkins said in the press release. “The commencement of demolition marks a significant step forward in this process.”
Purchased by Henry J. Kaiser in 1939, the quarry and cement plant contributed to building major projects in Northern California, including landmarks such as the Shasta Dam and Golden Gate Bridge.
However, the plant and quarry have taken a toll on the surrounding environment and community. In the past 15 years, there have been multiple lawsuits filed against the quarry for discharging toxic metals and violating water, air and noise pollution standards.
The Sierra Club was the first to file a lawsuit in 2011, alleging the quarry was illegally dumping toxic metals into Permanente Creek, which runs through Mountain View and empties into San Francisco Bay. Lawsuits from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California followed in 2015.
Santa Clara County also found a variety of violations at the cement plant and issued more than 2,000 citations from 2012 to 2021. As the violations mounted, so did community opposition.
In 2021, a proposal to “chop the top” off Permanente Ridge for mining was the final straw for many people, according to Joe Simitian, who sat on the county board of supervisors from 1996-2000 and 2013-2025.
“[It] would have eliminated something like 20 acres of undisturbed space,” Simitian said. “We had both the Teamsters and the Sierra Club standing side by side, which was not something that I typically saw in my career.”
In 2020, the plant’s operations were paused due to the pandemic before permanently closing in 2023 amid continued county pressure. Excavation at the quarry was also halted that same year. In an effort to rehabilitate the area, county officials broke ground on the Permanente Creek Restoration Project last summer to remove toxic mine waste and restore miles of watershed in Cupertino.
“The community is very excited about moving forward with the demolition, the reclamation and restoration of the land there,” Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga told this publication. “Heidelberg has been very, very communicative and collaborative with the community, letting us know what they’re doing and taking a lot of input.”
The plan to restore the entire 3,500-acre area to its natural habitat will not happen anytime soon, however. The process is expected to take 40 years to complete.
“It took us more than 100 years to get to this point,” Simitian said. “It’s going to take a little while to restore and reclaim the site. That’s the hard truth.”
They ask for “feedback on how the site could provide value to the community in the long-term”. The most amazing thing I can think of coming from this is the cessation of operation for the 15 mile railroad spur from downtown San Jose to this location and its conversion to a multi-use pathway. Mountain View has been working 35 years to build the nearly 5 mile Stevens Creek Trail. Fitting a trail into an already developed community is very hard. So even if it takes a few years for the quarry to admit they are done using the railroad, it would be an amazing 15 mile trail linking several other trails and many parks and communities.