Residents voice concerns at Hanson Cement open house

I just moved in Cupertino recently on the N. Foothill Blvd.
I doubt why the cement trucks can work overnight throughout the road creating terrible noise all over the night. Is there any city restriction implemented on this against terrible noise pollution?
I also worry about the air pollution concerned which will ultimately affect our health.

Helen wrote:

I just moved in Cupertino recently on the N. Foothill Blvd.
I doubt why the cement trucks can work overnight throughout the road creating terrible noise all over the night. Is there any city restriction implemented on this against terrible noise pollution?
I also worry about the air pollution concerned which will ultimately affect our health.

Hi Ellen. Definitely your realtor did a very poor job of not warning you about the proximity of your house to a cement plant. It is not the plant's fault. They are there for many many years, making and shipping cement 24/7. This is the nature of the glass, steel, cement, lime and other industrial business. As to the air quality, talk to your neighbors to see how many had their health affected by air pollution from the cement plant. If you find no case,take a deep breath. Please consider doing your homework in your next move.

Helen wrote:

I just moved in Cupertino recently on the N. Foothill Blvd.
I doubt why the cement trucks can work overnight throughout the road creating terrible noise all over the night. Is there any city restriction implemented on this against terrible noise pollution?
I also worry about the air pollution concerned which will ultimately affect our health.

Speak Out
Cement plant was
there before homes

I am always amazed at the people who complain about the Hanson Cement Plant (formerly Kaiser Cement). What were people thinking when they bought a home near a mine? The usual complaint was the noise, the dust or the trucks. If that is not enough, representatives of a preschool want to know the effects of diesel fumes on young children. If they are so concerned, why did they place a preschool near a mine? The plant has been there since the 1940s, long before any houses or a preschool. I don't know who is more to blame, the city council, county supervisors who approved the zoning, or the home buyer. Ultimately, it is the buyer's responsibility to be informed.

I hope Hanson is allowed to expand its facility so that it can continue producing cement. Keep in mind that the foundations your homes are built on use cement, the roads, the building you work in all use cement. U.S. cement producers have made enormous strides in making their plants more energy efficient and have added facilities to reduce dust and particulates. Is it perfect? No, but the cement industry recognizes its environmental responsibilities, and as technology improves so will the industry. If the plant closes in the next few years, the 1.6 million tons of cement will be replaced with cement from Mexico and China. These countries do not have stellar records for energy efficiency or environmental sensitivity. Does it make sense to increase the cost of construction by reducing availability or allowing high polluting countries to make our cement?

Ah, but the cement plant will not be in my back yard. Let's forget the fact that the cement plant was there before your yard.

Mark Fantozzi

Cupertino

If all of you voice out to your assembly men, the plant can be moved to other spacious open ground that exist in CA or even Colorado...or any other unsed space far far way from houses
I can imagine the operating cost and worker's wage in CA Especially Bay Area
Who knows it might move to Mexico or China, in business it's nothing personal, it's all about cheaper operating cost and maximizing profits

Close IT obviously has no concept of the cost of operating a business. An IT company can possibly move its location without any problem - just unplug your computers and load up the back of your SUV. Consider how easy it would be to move a manufacturing and mining site that encompasses 200 acres??? No problem, right. Easy. And then purchase 200 acres in another part of the state or Colorado (???) and set it all up. Probably can be done over a weekend, just like all IT upgrades are usually done. Get a life. Go back to your bedroom and work your internet connections.

Hello, Looks like Mark is on the side of Cement and not on the side of human life. This Cement Factory and Quarry are in violation of the Clean Air Act and should be shut down. I suppose breathing is not important to Mark and have children or maybe he has not been murdered with
cancer. Well Mark my husband and I have both had
cancer and never really know when it will return.
My daughter was born with severe brain damage and died when she was 3 1/2 years old. I am not only
contaminated by this Cement plant but I also have
Apple Computers R & D Manufacturing factory right next door to my home with their baking of resin molds in their thermotron ovens polluting the whole neighborhood. OK, Just what are you thinking
they were here first don't you care about human life and our children shame on you. I hope you can do your homework and look up on may sites in the web read what these pollutants are doing to our planet. We nee to wake up to mother nature cancer comes from enviromental pollution no one is immune including you. Everyone needs to do their homework please and help stop this pollution

Concerned with Ellen wrote:

<quoted text>
Speak Out
Cement plant was
there before homes
I am always amazed at the people who complain about the Hanson Cement Plant (formerly Kaiser Cement). What were people thinking when they bought a home near a mine? The usual complaint was the noise, the dust or the trucks. If that is not enough, representatives of a preschool want to know the effects of diesel fumes on young children. If they are so concerned, why did they place a preschool near a mine? The plant has been there since the 1940s, long before any houses or a preschool. I don't know who is more to blame, the city council, county supervisors who approved the zoning, or the home buyer. Ultimately, it is the buyer's responsibility to be informed.
I hope Hanson is allowed to expand its facility so that it can continue producing cement. Keep in mind that the foundations your homes are built on use cement, the roads, the building you work in all use cement. U.S. cement producers have made enormous strides in making their plants more energy efficient and have added facilities to reduce dust and particulates. Is it perfect? No, but the cement industry recognizes its environmental responsibilities, and as technology improves so will the industry. If the plant closes in the next few years, the 1.6 million tons of cement will be replaced with cement from Mexico and China. These countries do not have stellar records for energy efficiency or environmental sensitivity. Does it make sense to increase the cost of construction by reducing availability or allowing high polluting countries to make our cement?
Ah, but the cement plant will not be in my back yard. Let's forget the fact that the cement plant was there before your yard.
Mark Fantozzi
Cupertino

Hay, Littlerock what are you thinking again this pollution won't effect me or my family. Question do you work for a cement factory? What we need to
understand is human like is more important than cement. I suspect that moving a plant to a place where it will not effect the population is a great task but one that has to be done. I would also hope that this move will also spark some new inventions on how to contain the pollution. I am also not leaving out the water contamination that needs to be cleaned up. Ok, the bottom line here is do we want a future for our children or don't we? Littlerock how about moving all this right next door to your house is that ok with you. I did not think so get real no one wants this next to their hour and if they did not do their home work than the EPA and Government should have. I am in favor of pushing the EPA to do their job.
I am also in favor of human like and I hope you are to. Clean up your act and stop condeming people who are scared about the future of this planet. I am very ashamed for you and people like you. I hope you realize cancer has no bonderies and everyone and anyone can get it even you.
To bad you did not do your homework.

Ignorant about Business wrote:

Close IT obviously has no concept of the cost of operating a business. An IT company can possibly move its location without any problem - just unplug your computers and load up the back of your SUV. Consider how easy it would be to move a manufacturing and mining site that encompasses 200 acres??? No problem, right. Easy. And then purchase 200 acres in another part of the state or Colorado (???) and set it all up. Probably can be done over a weekend, just like all IT upgrades are usually done. Get a life. Go back to your bedroom and work your internet connections.

Littlerock what are you thinking? I don't think you are doing your homework. Cement Factories are polluting our planet and all you can think of is who was there first. The EPA and the Federal Gov. should be watching over all this and have just been looking the other way. Human life is more important than cement. My Husband and I have both had cancer and had surgery to cut it out of our bodies we are still alive. The thing is we are still constantly exposed to these polluntant and never know when the cancer will return this is not to mention the pain and suffering we endured.
Our children should have a future and all you can think of is where will the cement factory go.
The issue is the pollution is killing us and so the cement factory needs to find a better way of controlling the pollution with new technology.
Find a remote place to set up the factory that is really tough the planet is shrinking. Well here we go again American inginuety strikes again get to it find a way to mine your cement and not kill people. I suppose Littlerock would allow you to move the cement factory next door to his house right. Funny how things change when it is you who are living next door to this killer. Get real and
do your homework. Well remember cancer does not have a preference of who will get it and when.
Littlerock you maybe next take a deep breath it maybe your last. The only way to stop cancer is to prevent it clean up our planet. Oh, and another thing it really does not matter who was there first and how difficult it would be to move his plant what matters is that human life is more important than cement.

Ignorant about Business wrote:

Close IT obviously has no concept of the cost of operating a business. An IT company can possibly move its location without any problem - just unplug your computers and load up the back of your SUV. Consider how easy it would be to move a manufacturing and mining site that encompasses 200 acres??? No problem, right. Easy. And then purchase 200 acres in another part of the state or Colorado (???) and set it all up. Probably can be done over a weekend, just like all IT upgrades are usually done. Get a life. Go back to your bedroom and work your internet connections.

To all concerned
I am really tired of people who just think things should just remain the same even if things are killing us. I don't have all the answers and hope that some really smart people can help us save our planet. I know I am doing my part and have titled myself as a self appointed environmentalist and so can you. Write letters to our representitives city, state and federal and get involved as much as you can. Stand up for what is right and save our homes, children and communities from this blight of environmental contamination. Don't be afraid to do the right thing even if people like Mark and Littlrock put you down because they have their own agenda.
Remember the children and the future of the Earth and stop the pollution.
We all need to do more than our share even if the
people around us don't get it and all they care about is the depreciation of their property. Worried that if everyone hears about the pollution in their community that they can't sell their home. Funny there really is no place you can go to get away from all this so why sell your home. It is time to take a stand and fight for the right to clean air, water and a soil to walk and live on. Ok, bottom line get with it and get
going stop the pollutors and the pollution.

Cathy the cement plant has been around for 40 years, and the health effects, and the associated epidemiology is a matter of historical record. It has always had a negative impact on air quality and on the health of residents near the plant, but it has gotten cleaner over the years. There are risks in everything. And while it is true that proximity to the plant's emissions, and the duration of exposure both increase your relative risk, the aggregate cancer risk (just cancer, nothing else, like respiratory distress or discomfort or eye irritation or any of the myriad other possible effects), is only about 1 part in 50 of the total airborne "background" exposure risk of air quality in Silicon Valley as a region. So if you were to look at a population of a million residents, the background risk is about 500 per, and the exposure to Kaiser operations is about 10.

I grew up in Cupertino, lived both extremely close to the plant as well as further away but still in the "plume" and so I am as sensitive and aware as anyone of the danger. But there is no epidemic of cancers near the plant, no leukemia clusters, no sarcomas, nothing that would indicate there is a major problem. There is probably more risk from living adjacent to 85, and the associated exposure to benzenes and diesel particulates, both of which are well known carcinogens.

Lastly, the proposal to "move" the plant is a non starter. You can't relocate a quarry. It is part of the earth. It's like moving a lake, or a mountain.

I don't want you to think people don't care, or that cement is more important than health, and people's lives and happiness. Not even the officers or employees of Hansen Cement feel that way, they're people too, who live in the community, who have friends, family, and coworkers who live in the community. If there is a public health risk posed by the plant, nobody is more adversely affected than the workers...they are at Ground Zero.

I think the solution for managing individual risk might be relocation - if you're more susceptible to environmental contamination than the population at large, you have no choice but to seek out the cleanest environment. On the other hand, there are probably small improvements to be made on emissions control, but at some point there will be a stage where it will be as clean as possible without compromising the functionality or profitability of the operation, and that's where they will have to stop trying to improve. 10 cancers for a million residents, which is an annual rate, means that in a given decade there are only about 5 cancers attributed to the cement plant. Granted, you can't put a price on life (despite insurance actuarial schedules and jury compensation awards as evidence to the contrary), but the risk seems to be "acceptable". I know it isn't what you want to hear, because you have what you consider a personal stake in the situation.

But it seems to be the answer.

It's the same old story, I work in the construction industry. Once people get their homes, they complain and want everything to stop growing because they have theirs. But how did they feel five or ten years ago befor they had theirs. Lehigh plant has been in the community for years providing jobs for hundreds of residents as well as across the state.
So, you want to shut it down because it is not environmentally favorable? Do you feel guilty enough to spend thousands of dollars to remove the cement foundation from beneath your home which probably came from this very plant you want shut down now that you have your home and no longer need the local less expensive cement from this plant,now that you have yours?
It is ridiculous what the state of CA is becoming.Remember the earth rotates so going above and beyond to be clean locally might make you feel good,it is not going to protect you from the rest of the planet.

My understanding about the plant is that they have almost exhausted the limestone that they are digging for. This means that they need to move to another site to start more digging. Yes they have been here since the 1940's but did they know or anticipate the environmental damage that the plant would cause back then.( I don't think so!) It has become known facts that the mercury from this plant has polluted the fish in the near by waters as well as caused noise, and dust, and also have removed a great portion of the mountain they are working on. Humans are one issue that has grown in numbers since the plant existed but what about the fish, water, plants, wildlife habitats, and the wildlife that was there long before the plant. Humans are only starting to realize the importance of natural resources and the services that these resources provide.(water, air, plants, wildlife,etc) I feel that if the cement plant needs to find a new location to dig up limestone, due to exhausting the resources where they are now, that the location should be moved out of the area and do a better job at projecting, calculating and preventing the damages caused by an operation like this one. Again humans are important but we can not survive by thinking of only the humans. True no one can do this alone, it is a global issue and it has become clear that humans have a HUGE impact that can be helpful or harmful. It is clear that cement plants are very harmful and have made some changes because there are people who care and not just about ourselves but the resources that surround us. The cement plant has been doing damage long enough and they know it. Just like gasoline cars, the ol' mighty dollar in profits blurs the environmental impacts that business can cause. We have the power to change for the better and no time is better than now to start the process. I vote for a cleaner healthier future for all, including the employees at the plant.

Concerned with Ellen wrote:

<quoted text>
Hi Ellen. Definitely your realtor did a very poor job of not warning you about the proximity of your house to a cement plant. It is not the plant's fault. They are there for many many years, making and shipping cement 24/7. This is the nature of the glass, steel, cement, lime and other industrial business. As to the air quality, talk to your neighbors to see how many had their health affected by air pollution from the cement plant. If you find no case,take a deep breath. Please consider doing your homework in your next move.

Ellen,

I need to ask if you work for the Lehigh Southwest Company because you are so wrong and it seems you want to look the other way.

I am deeply affected by the air, water and soil polution and my husband and I have both had cancer. There is cement dust all over my home and no matter how hard I try I can't keep up with it.
There are other health problems just to many to convey to you now.

I am shocked that you have not even tried to do your home work and look up the pollution that is coming from this cement plant and how it is distroying our lives.

The silly reason that you and those who cover up what the Cement Plant and Quarry are doing by saying the Cement Plant was there first is dumb and a very crazy reason for giving them the ok to continue with the Title V Permit. Lehigh Cement and Quarry need to be shut down once and for all and I will do all I can to get that accomplished.

I hope for you sake that you do not become ill from the Mercury contamination and the other pollution from Lehigh but chances are that everyone will get cancer in this valley.

Please stop your denial of the situation and start protecting yourself and your family and fight the fight with us.

Student wrote:

My understanding about the plant is that they have almost exhausted the limestone that they are digging for. This means that they need to move to another site to start more digging. Yes they have been here since the 1940's but did they know or anticipate the environmental damage that the plant would cause back then.( I don't think so!) It has become known facts that the mercury from this plant has polluted the fish in the near by waters as well as caused noise, and dust, and also have removed a great portion of the mountain they are working on. Humans are one issue that has grown in numbers since the plant existed but what about the fish, water, plants, wildlife habitats, and the
wildlife that was there long before the plant. Humans are only starting to realize the importance of natural resources and the services that these resources provide.(water, air, plants, wildlife,etc) I feel that if the cement plant needs to find a new location to dig up limestone, due to exhausting the resources where they are now, that the location should be moved out of the area and do a better job at projecting, calculating and preventing the damages caused by an operation like this one. Again humans are important but we can not survive by thinking of only the humans. True no one can do this alone, it is a global issue and it has become clear that humans have a HUGE impact that can be helpful or harmful. It is clear that cement plants are very harmful and have made some changes because there are people who care and not just about ourselves but the resources that surround us. The cement plant has been doing damage long enough and they know it. Just like gasoline cars, the ol' mighty dollar in profits blurs the environmental impacts that business can cause. We have the power to change for the better and no time is better than now to start the process. I vote for a cleaner healthier future for all, including the employees at the plant.

Hi,

I love young people and they are the salvation of our future God Bless them.

Thanks for your comments I hope they were all listing to you .

The problem is that the Lehigh Southwest Cement plant once to mine more rock and they have purchased stronger and more capable equipment to do just that they can crush now 1800/lbs per hour.

They also have emergency equipment that they can use if something goes a miss the problem is that no one will pay attention to that and they will mine more rock.

I suppose we can all wait till they are mining so much and so frequently that we just can't breath or live here anymore than what will the EPA and Health Department do?

I am in the process of exposing them and if it takes the last breath of air I breath then so be it.

I would like to suggest that you go into a field that will help to clean up the environment.

Thanks Again.

Thank to all of you who are working to help expose the pollution in our country and hope you will all continue working to do so.
Those of you who keep trying to keep the old way of thinking alive should be aware that no matter how hard you try you are not immune from the pollution and will suffer right along with the rest of us.
There are people being laid off from their jobs each day by the thousands and that does not seem to bother you at all. The employees at Lehigh Southwest Cement if they loose their jobs will gain their lives and health so what is more important. I suppose they can go on unemployment and eventually find another job but can they get another body once the one they have has been distroyed by pollution.
Please you silly foolish people who want to keep your heads in the ground look up and see the gray polluted skys and cry, cry, cry for humanity.
I cry each day and my eyes burn and itch and so does my head that bleed each day from the contamination. My feet burn and itch and my skin is very dry and I have to put lotion on it.
The Air, Water and Soil have been contaminated and we need to as human being who are in charge of this planet should be able to start to clean it up.
If we do not have the technology then we need to develope it after all we can send a man to the moon than why can't we contain the emissions from the pollutors.
Those in charge of our safety are not doin their jobs and the results of this is sickness and pollution.
Cancer is not a disease it is an affliction of the pollution and contamination to our air, water and soil. You can not cure cancer you can only radiate, chemo, or cut it our of our bodies so why are they working to develope some kind of cure? There is a great deal of people that make a great deal of money off of this and they want it to continue. Sounds harsh well the truth sometimes is and but it has to be told.
We need to work for prevention and that means making sure that the corporations contain their emission and that they do not pollute any one.
Those of you who understand get involved and do your research and homework and learn about the problems with all these chemicals, metals and gases that are used and released to our enviroment.
Well keep up your good work