Questions Asked During the 3/3/21 Lehigh Cement Informational Public Meeting

Question for Entire Panel:

16:41

• Panelists, I’m going to ask you to briefly introduce yourselves as I call you out. Tell us your name, your agency’s name, and give just 2 or 3 minutes of a summary of the kind of oversight that your agency provides at the Lehigh site, and what that agency oversight has looked like over the course of the past year.

Questions for County Planning:

52:48

• Is there a plan to close this facility at some point and restore the land?
• What are the plans for habitat restoration and the filling of the quarry pit?

55:30

• Mr. Salisbury, you mentioned 20 million cubic yards of clean fill is being proposed [to fill the pit] in the application received from Lehigh as an alternative to using materials that are currently on-site. What are the implications of that in terms of truck traffic going in and out of the site?

56:30

• What is the status of Lehigh’s proposed reclamation plan amendment? Have any specific findings been made at this point?

57:23

• Could you describe the decision-making process going forward? Who makes that decision, ultimately, about approving or denying the requested reclamation plan amendment?
• What is the timeline on all of that [a final decision on the reclamation plan amendment]? When do you expect that a final decision might be made? Is this likely to be resolved in the next 18 months?

Questions for County Counsel:

59:33

• Can the County simply refuse to process any changes in or expansion of vested rights?

1:00:23

• So it [changes in vested rights] could conceivably be approved or denied, but if someone files the application, and they file a complete application, it gets processed. Is that the bottom line?

1:00:42

• Could voters simply decide to rescind the vested rights?

1:02:54

• What are the facts regarding Lehigh’s filing suit against the County?

Question for the City of Cupertino:

1:04:22

• What is the status of the access road within t​he city’s [Cupertino’s] jurisdiction between the Lehigh and Steven’s Creek Quarry properties?

Questions for County Planning:

1:05:43

• County Planning, what else can you tell us about the issue of the access road and the resulting traffic?

1:06:15

• Mr. Salisbury, when you say that’s covered under the reclamation plan amendment, does that mean that Lehigh is asking yet again to use that access road for moving material back and forth across the boundary between Lehigh and Stevens Creek?

Questions for the County Department of Environmental Health:

1:07:12

• What is happening on the noise front?

1:07:34

• Ms. Gaddi, when was the last time you had a noise violation at the site?

Questions for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District:

1:08:13

• How is Lehigh held accountable for air emissions? Do we have reports or data to verify compliance? If there have been violations, do we have enough in the way of data and report information to stop any illegal behavior?

1:10:20

• Mr. Marvin, you mentioned you can use data from records that Lehigh keeps and maintains and that you can also do measurements at the source. Has your agency actually done either or both of those things in the last year or two?

Question for the Regional Water Quality Control Board:

1:11:54

• How is Lehigh held accountable for toxic waste emitted into the water, and is it sufficient to stop illegal behavior?

1:12:54

• What is the difference between the Water District [Valley Water] and the Water Board [Regional Water Quality Control Board]?

1:13:40

• Can the selenium released at Lehigh get into the groundwater and then into local drinking water?

Question for Valley Water (formerly Santa Clara Valley Water District):

1:14:48

• Can the selenium released at Lehigh get into the groundwater and then into local drinking water?

Question for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):

1:15:43

• What emissions reduction devices are required to be installed at the Cupertino facility? Specifically, has the SNCR [selective non-catalytic reduction] been installed and is it operational?

General Questions:

1:20:56

• What is the impact on the construction industry of Lehigh going out of business?
• How do we replace the product they [Lehigh] produce? Where would it come from?

Question for Supervisor Simitian:

1:21:35

• What will Supervisor Simitian do to ensure construction projects continue at full speed in our county?

Questions from Attendees:

1:22:55

• When will the kiln be put back in operation?

1:23:44

• How long are the current permits and what are the prospects for non-renewal?

1:24:36

• Is there the potential for a [reclamation plan] amendment approval to be time-limited if that were the will of the majority of the Board of Supervisors?

1:25:53

• (To Joe) I live within about a mile of the Cupertino mining operations. For the last 35 years, I have not seen any trouble, and in fact I am happy to see construction materials flowing into our county. This company is important and we need elected officials to work to keep them operation. Will you commit to resolving all roadblocks?

1:27:48

• What are the environmental screening levels for imported fill for this, and any, site within Santa Clara County for various types of contaminants? And is there a link that someone could provide that would show the criteria or the limits or the levels that are allowed?

1:30:41

• When I registered, the dialogue box asked attendees to either ask a question or provide a comment. Our family chose to provide a comment. How will our feedback be captured and recorded for future reference as we hope it will be?

1:32:45

• Given that the Lehigh facility is one of California’s biggest air polluters, ahead of refineries, ranking #2 for sulfur oxides and #3 for hydrochloric acid and #4 for particulate matter and #6 for volatile organic compounds and #7 for nitrogen oxides and #10 for hexavalent chromium, what are the chances that the county will simply discontinue their permit in order to protect public health as well as the environment?

1:34:33

• What does somebody have to do to get their approval yanked? What would you tell them?

1:36:40

• Can they [Lehigh] or any other property owner violate standards, receive notices of violation, and just keep doing the same thing without being put out of business? Or is there some point at which you say these folks are so significantly out of compliance that that requires them to be shut down? What is the standard? How does that work? Tell us a little about that.

1:42:18

• Is there a detailed restoration and recovery plan for the site? If so, where is it located? Is it available online?

1:43:28

• Can the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors legally make a new or different determination on vested rights before Lehigh invests large sums in a new mine? If not, why not?

1:44:36

• Will the slides be shared with those who registered?

1:45:21

• There is always black dust settling on our parked cars and outdoor items. What is being done to control cement and dust particles along residential truck routes on Stevens Creek Boulevard?

1:47:32

• In addition to the enforcement of vehicle code provisions and any local ordinances, is there anything built into the system that limits this truck traffic in any way?

1:48:52

• What is the status of the legal action by Lehigh against the county?

1:50:17

• One of the key concerns among the public is the impact of the quarry on the aesthetic quality of the area – simply the character of the views of the mountains. In addition to environmental health and quality, air and water quality and their regulation, how does the regulatory process that deals with the impact of the operations on the site (e.g., Mining) engage with this critical public concern?

1:52:31

• What hazardous materials are being monitored?

1:54:41

• Does Lehigh pay for the abnormal wear and tear on the surrounding city roads?

1:55:47

• Regarding the possibility of 600 truck trips per day, what are the names of the streets that will be impacted?