Politics & Government

Lehigh On Notice Brings Celebration By Protesters

A Bay Area Clean Environment Rally Monday drew cheers when protestors learned Lehigh Cement received a pointed 30-day notice from state officials.

A loaded with dry, official-speak from a less-than-glamorous state department brought whoops of glee from a small group of neighbors who gathered for a rally Monday afternoon in the shade at Rancho San Antonio County Park.

The group of about 25 people, supporters of Bay Area Clean Environment, formerly known as No Toxic Air, who contend violates environmental laws and regulations, gathered to hear from group leaders that the Office of Mine Reclamation (OMR) had sent a letter to Lehigh. The letter indicates that the company has 30 days to achieve full compliance of a reclamation plan or face being taken off a list—called AB 3098—that puts the company in a position to secure lucrative government work.

“That letter validates everything we’ve been saying,” said Richard Adler of Cupertino.

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The OMR notice says Lehigh has been out of compliance since December 2007 and has not followed an approved plan boundary for dumping materials in the East Materials Storage Area (EMSA.) .

“The plant should be shut down until it is in compliance of the law,” said Karen Del Compare.

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Lehigh in a statement issued Monday said it is in compliance and that removal from AB 3098 could be “devastating” to the company and its employees. That held little weight with those at the rally.

“Lehigh issued a statement basically saying ‘doom is upon us’ and that they are too big to shut down," Adler said. "Well, we’ve heard that one before. Life will go on if they are removed from the list. It amounts to economic terrorism.”

Santa Clara County is considered the “lead agency” with oversight responsibilities of the cement operations, a role in which the county fails miserably, according to Bay Area Clean Environment (BACE.) In repeated attempts by BACE to get the county to enforce the notices of violation placed on the company and deny its request to open a second pit mine and other matters, the county has disappointed protestors, who show up regularly at county Board of Supervisors meetings when a Lehigh issue is on the agenda.

“The county has not stepped in,” Adler said. “If regulators and officials are not doing their job, we have to do it. The county basically ignored the public.”  

John Bartas has been a neighbor to the quarry for close to two decades and became concerned with the plant's activities about 17 years ago when he learned the company was test burning rubber tires on the site. He’s been an activist ever since but scoffs at the idea of moving to get away from the plant.

“It seem un-American to just quit and move,” he said. “I just want them to clean up.”

He wants to see a return of the landscape to its more natural setting. He says there are no fish in the stream and that it is polluted with selenium and other pollutants all released by Lehigh.

“Fish don’t poop selenium,” Bartas said.

Cupertino City Councilman Barry Chang, who is a founder of No Toxic Air, spoke briefly at the beginning of the rally but quickly turned it over to Adler with a tongue-in-cheek parting remark.

“If I say any more, I may be framed as angry Barry Chang,” Chang said in reference to a recent Twitter account named AngryBarryChang, which appears devoted to attacking Chang.


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