CA Cement Quarry To Pay $7.5M To Settle Water Pollution Violations

"CUPERTINO -- The Lehigh Hanson cement plant, a longtime producer of Silicon Valley building materials but also a significant polluter, will pay $7.5 million as part of an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to settle charges it dumped millions of gallons of toxic wastewater into a nearby creek.

Under the settlement, scheduled to be announced at a news conference Wednesday, the facility, owned by Hanson Permanente Cement and operated by Lehigh Southwest Cement, will be required to spend $5 million to install an advanced wastewater treatment plant. The company also will pay $2.55 million in civil penalties to the government.

From 2009 to 2014, the quarry in the Cupertino hills discharged wastewater containing levels of selenium -- a naturally occurring element that is toxic to fish, birds and other wildlife -- in excess of its permits into Permanente Creek, which flows into San Francisco Bay."

Paul Rogers reports for the San Jose Mercury News April 29, 2015.