Permanente Quarry

Aerial view of Permanente Quarry (Kaiser Permanente Cement Plant) in Santa Clara County, California, with background view of the South Bay and Mount Diablo

Waste quarry material piled over natural "Permanente Ridge" is visible from much of the South Bay.

A view of Lehigh Southwest Cement's Permanente Quarry looking north from the summit of Black Mountain across the quarry and over Silicon Valley

The Permanente Quarry is a limestone quarry in an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County, California, just west of Cupertino, California. The quarry is a limestone and aggregate mining operation and cement plant, owned by Lehigh Southwest Cement, a subsidiary of Heidelberg Cement. Since 1939 the plant has been in operation and is responsible for the production of more than half of the cement used in the Bay Area. Roughly 70 percent of the cement used in the communities of Santa Clara County is acquired from the cement plant.

Located in the foothills above Cupertino on the northeast slopes of Black Mountain, the quarry runs east-west parallel to the upper watershed of Permanente Creek to the south and to Permanente Ridge and Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve to the north.

The limestone rock found in the Permanente Creek valley and on the summit of Black Mountain is relatively unique in the Bay Area. Microfossils in the limestone deposits suggest that the mountain originated as a seamount at 22 degrees north in the tropical Pacific about 100 million years ago and was transported to Los Altos by the Pacific Plate. These rocks occur as jagged gray boulders and outcrops just southwest of the radio towers on the summit of Black Mountain, as well as in the Permanente Quarry.

History

The cement plant was founded by Henry J. Kaiser as the Kaiser Permanente Cement Plant in 1939, taking the name of the business from the Permanente Creek in whose valley it lies. Kaiser intended to use the quarry to provide the majority of the cement used in the construction of the Shasta Dam, supplying the 6 million barrels (950,000 m³) of cement. Additionally, Kaiser Cement Company built Highway 101, Highway 85 and other major Northern California landmarks from the quarry. The cement plant is the primary reason for the lone railroad line that runs through the city. Hanson Cement acquired Kaiser Cement for $200 million in 1986. The cement company was renamed Hanson Permanente Cement in 1999. At the time of sale, Kaiser Cement was the 5th largest producer of cement in the entire United States.

In the 1890s, R. A Swayne purchased 160 acres of land at the headwaters of Permanente Creek. He planted vineyards, built a winery and other buildings, expending about $25,000 in the process. When that venture failed, Swayne sold the property for $1500. Granite Rock Company of Watsonville bought it for $2500 in order to mine the limestone. In 1902 the Alvarado Sugar Company contracted with Granite Rock to produce 5,000 tons to be shipped at two car loads per day. The Alvarado plant was the first sugar beet factory in the country.

A state mining report also suggest that it was known as the El Dorado Sugar Company Quarry which was located in Section 18 of Township 7 S, Range 2 W. That location is approximately 1.8 miles west of the end of Stevens Creek Blvd. The rock was transported nine miles by wagon to Mt. View where it was loaded onto Southern Pacific Railroad trains at a rate of 30-60 tons per day in the dry season. The rock was taken to the sugar factory in Alviso where it was burned into quicklime and used to refine sugar. The stone was described as, “being good road material as it was in small pieces that would not require further grinding.”

In 1906 the sugar refining industry was using much of the limestone quarried in California and only a small amount was used in road construction. Large amounts were also used for the manufacture of Portland cement.

In 1908 Southern Pacific Railroad completed the Mayfield Cutoff which ran from Mayfield (now part of Palo Alto), along the west side of the Santa Clara Valley to Los Gatos. There was a stop at Monta Vista where the tracks crossed Stevens Creek Road. This eliminated the nine-mile wagon journey between the quarry and the railroad.

The operation continued intermittently until 1934.

Early Kaiser Era

When the two bids to build Shasta Dam were opened in June 1938, they were only $262,000 apart on the $35 million project. The winning bid went to Pacific Constructors Inc. of Los Angeles, a consortium of twelve companies. The losing bid was entered by the Shasta Construction Company of consortium of nine companies including Kaiser-Bechtel.

When Henry Kaiser lost the bid to build Shasta Dam, he entered a bid on providing the cement and another bid to provide the aggregate and sand to mix with the cement to produce the 15 million tons of concrete needed to build at what the time was the second most massive dam in the world.

On June 5, 1939 the Columbia Construction Company, one of Henry Kaiser’s many companies, won the bid to provide the 7.6 million tons of aggregate and 2.8 tons of sand required for the construction of Shasta Dam. Twenty years earlier, when Kaiser was building roads in the area, he purchased rights to a gravel bank in the area east of Redding, approximately nine miles from the Shasta Dam construction cite. Southern Pacific Railroad wanted $.27/ton to move the material to the construction site. The gravel was 1 1/2 miles from the Southern Pacific railhead which required the construction of a conveyor belt between the pit and the railroad. At the suggestion of one of Kaiser’s engineers, a 9.6-mile conveyor belt system was built, completely bypassing the railroad, and delivering the aggregate at $.18/ton.

In 1938 Henry Kaiser signed a three-year lease for 1000 acres along Arroyo Permanente from the Santa Clara Holding Co. Ltd at a cost of $12,000/year. On July 14, 1939 a deed recording revealed that the Permanente Corp bought the land for $235/acre.

Two days before the cement supply bids for Shasta Dam were opened on April 31, 1939, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted to permit the construction of a $4,000,000 cement plant at Permanente.

Kaiser offered to deliver 5.58 million barrels of low-heat Portland cement at $1.90/barrel for a total cost of a little over $11 million. The Bureau of Reclamation rejected the second bid tendered by the Portland Cement Institute which was $1.6 million higher than Kaiser. The Institute bid came from a consortium the Beaver Portland Cement Company, the Calaveras Portland Cement Company, the Monolith Portland Cement Company, the Pacific Portland Cement Company, the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company and the Yosemite Portland Cement Company, which had often been the only bid on other large Bureau of Reclamation projects. After the bids were opened, the Institute offered to beat the Kaiser bid and they claimed that Kaiser’s lack of a cement plant and experience would make it unable for him to meet the contract. The Bureau ignored their offer and protests and awarded the contract to the Permanente Corp.

From the outset there were objections to the plant lodged by neighboring farmers who were afraid that cement dust would adversely affect their wine grape vineyards and apricot, cherry and prune trees. A lawsuit was filed by 290 residents. A Cottrell precipitator collected dust from smokestacks on electrodes and trapped it into bins to be used for the manufacture of by- products. A consultant for the company argued that precipitators would remove 99% of the cement dust.

Permanente is 300 miles south of Shasta Dam, requiring the cement to be moved by rail. Southern Pacific built a 1.9-mile spur from the Los Altos Branch line to the plant site. That line required a “Wye” at the Simla Junction. On October 1, 1939, Permanente became a Class A, non agency station on the Los Altos Branch of Southern Pacific.

The Calera (Franciscan) limestone quarry, at an elevation of 1850-feet, lies between the San Andreas Fault and a branch fault known as the Black Mountain Fault. 5-cubic yard Bucyrus-Erie electric shovels put the limestone into diesel-powered [[Caterpillar]-Le Tourneau rubber-tired 20-ton buggies and then onto four miles of gravity flow conveyor belts at the rate of 1000 tons per hour. As the gravity conveyor belt moved the rock one mile to the cement plant, energy was recovered from the brakes and used to power the electric shovels. There was a 1200-foot difference in elevation between the quarry and the cement plant.

Henry Kaiser had a long relationship with Caterpillar dating back to 1925 when he tried to convince them to build tractors with diesel engines. When they didn’t see the value in diesel engines, he wanted to buy their equipment without any engines. When they refused, he removed the gas engines and replaced them with diesels until Caterpillar began to build tractors with diesel engines.

The cement operation began with two 12- by 363-foot kilns, four Fuller coolers, 100-foot silos, crushing equipment and packing equipment. The plant employed a number of revolutionary production methods in order to produce the 7,000 barrels of cement each day needed for the Shasta Dam project.

Construction on the quarry and cement plant began in June 1939 and the first cement was shipped in December, even before it was needed at Shasta.

The country was still in the Depression so it was no surprise when hundreds of men showed up at the construction gate looking for work. They were turned away as it was a union job site other than for a few engineers. Out of state workers who showed up at the Labor Temple of San Jose of Local 270 of the Laborer’s Union were turned away as there weren’t enough jobs for local residents. Those who wanted to work had to pay $31.50 to join the union and then pay $1.50 a month for dues.

Another kiln was added in 1940 to boost output to 12,000 barrels/day. Even before production was a full capacity for Shasta, Permanente Cement Co. had contracts for a half million barrels each the Navy for dry docks and air bases in the Hawaiian Island,s and from the ready-Mix Concrete Company of Honolulu. At the time these contracts were announced in February 1940, Henry J. Kaiser Jr. the plant manager, said the dust control apparatus was functioning perfectly and capturing 70-100 tons of cement dust a day which was used over again.

The plant cost $10 million of which $7 million was borrowed from the Bank of America. The rest was put up by partners with no government money involved. Within a few years it was profiting $2-3 million per year.

In order to fulfill the overseas contracts, Kaiser bought the SS Ancon and her sister ship, the SS Cristobal, which had been used in the construction of the Panama Canal. The ships were converted into bulk carriers, with a capacity of 40,000 barrels each, at the Todd Shipyard in Seattle. This ships, renamed SS Permanente and SS Philippa, respectively, were operated by the Matson Navigation Company.

In June 1940 Permanente Cement signed a lease with the Port of Redwood City for four acres of land for 20 years for spur tracks, storage silos and bulk ship loading equipment. Cement was brought by rail and truck from the Permanente plant and loaded into the two ships. The port facility made it possible to fulfill the Navy contracts which by November 1941 included construction projects at Midway, Guam, Wake and other American-owned Pacific islands.

Henry Kaiser’s first experience with ships prompted him to form the Todd-California Shipbuilding Corporation, and then winning a bid from the British to build forty-two cargo ships. He started by building a shipyard in Richmond, CA, later adding three more there and three along the Columbia River in Portland and Vancouver, WA. After the British ships were built Todd pulled out of the partnership to focus on their own shipbuilding business. These seven shipyards produced about 25% of the total U.S. production of ships during World War 2.

When Henry Kaiser purchased the quarry land he also got a stone-and-redwood building high in the hills at the headwaters of Permanente Creek. According to legend the house, served by only one road, had been a speakeasy. Kaiser converted it to a lodge and he, and his wife, Bess, spent time in the quiet surroundings. Rio Permanente or sometimes Arroyo Permanente was discovered in 1776 by Col. Juan Bautista de Anza as he explored Alta California for the King of Spain. Rio Permanente was so named, as it continued to flow all year, unlike most streams in California which dry up in the summer. Bess Kaiser suggested the name for the medical program at the shipyards which after the War were opened up to the public, becoming the [Kaiser-Permanente]] Health Plan. The shipyards, steel plant in Fontana, CA and magnesium productions facilities operated as the Permanente Metal Corp. after Todd left Todd-California Shipbuilding Corp.

It didn’t take Kaiser long to get into the War. On the morning on Dec 7, 1941, SS Permanente was moored at Pier 31-A in the Honolulu Harbor, offloading cement to the storage facility located there. Just 10-15 feet from her bow was the USS Vega (AK-17), a Navy cargo ship loaded with 130 tons of explosives. According to the after action report filed by the commanding officer of USS Vega, at about 0930 they saw a group of Japanese planes circling over the harbor in preparation of a dive bombing attack. Vega fired her anti-aircraft guns but three bombs were dropped, one hitting the water just 30 yards off SS Permanente’s bow. The planes also strafed the water near the ships. Later that day, sailors on [[Ford Island[[ at Pearl Harbor built machine nests using Permanente Cement bags.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked, 65,000 barrels were available in the Pacific, most of it in Permanente’s privately owned bulk facilities in Honolulu, This helped to put the airfields back into action quickly.

At first the Navy was against using bulk cement in the tropics fearing the moisture would cause the cement to deteriorate. Kaiser was confident that would not be the case and guaranteed acceptable quality delivered right to the construction site, using compressed air to blow the cement in and out of the ships.

Permanente was given the contract to supply all of the bulk cement for Pacific airfields, fortifications, and other wartime installations. Shipments averaged 5000 barrels daily from the bulk silos in Honolulu during 1942-43. The dollar volume was $15 million saving the government $7.5 million using bulk cement over sacked cement. This does not take into account how much the bulk operations saved in ship-hours or the man-hours necessary in handling the cement. The savings in man-hours probably was twice that of the product. Permanente was the only American company to provide bulk cement.

Economic problems and bankruptcy

Hanson Permanente Cement filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the US Bankruptcy Court in 2016. The bankruptcy is related to more than 14,000 injury lawsuits. The previous year Hanson Permanente Cement was ordered to spend $5 million to install an advanced wastewater treatment plant along with $2.55 million in civil penalties.

Pollution

Mercury emissions & impact on human health

The cement plant at the quarry has been fueled by petroleum coke since 2007, the latter (along with the limestone itself) is a major source of mercury emissions. The cement plant is responsible for 29 percent of total Bay Area airborne mercury emissions and was shown to impact a rural site, Calero Reservoir, 20 miles (32 km) away. Mercury, a neurotoxin and pollutant which is concentrated in the aquatic food web, was found to be 5.8 to 6.7 times higher in precipitation near the cement plant than at a control location 2.0 miles (3.2 km) away. A 2011 study showed a significant geographic association between the occurrence of autism in local school districts, such as the Cupertino Union School District, and higher levels of ambient mercury generated by coal-fired power plants in Bexar County, Texas and the Permanente Quarry cement plant in Santa Clara County, California.

Selenium discharge

Groundwater fills the current quarry and is pumped into Permanente Creek. Selenium pollution in the creek downstream from the quarry ranged from 13 to 81 micrograms/liter (μg/L). A North Quarry water sample in January 2010 had a dissolved selenium concentration of 82 μg/L, indicating that the quarry is the source of the selenium pollution. Selenium is bioaccumulated in the aquatic food web. Safety standards for selenium concentrations in fresh water are 5 μg/L under the California Toxics Rule (same as the National Toxics Rule set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in 2000 and 2012.

Sediment discharges

Anthropization related to quarry operations and the cement plant have resulted in sediment discharges into Permanente Creek that are 3.5 times what would be expected under undeveloped conditions. Sediment loads in the upper Permanente Creek mainstem are 15 times those in the West Fork Permanente Creek, which drains mostly parkland. These sediment loads could threaten the resident rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) population in the creek.

Opposition

Under the terms of a 1985 reclamation plan, the quarry was not supposed to dump quarry waste materials more than 100 feet higher than the natural chaparral ridge known as Permanente Ridge. This waste material storage area, or WMSA, was piled on and above the Permanente Ridge and this brownish-gray scar is visible from much of the southern Bay Area – despite claims from the 2004 owner, Hanson Cement, that it was hydroseeded annually with native grass mix and that they planted 80% of the area in trees and shrubs, it remains (see photo inset) a barren zone, degrading the aesthetic value of the adjacent Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve. This barren ridge line, referred to by Lehigh Southwest as the West Materials Storage Area (WMSA) is visible to much of the Silicon Valley.

On December 19, 2011, the Sierra Club sued Lehigh Southwest Cement Company and Heidelberg Cement in federal court to stop its unpermitted discharges of selenium and other toxic water pollutants into Permanente Creek. The Sierra Club maintains that Lehigh has been polluting Permanente Creek in violation of the clean water act for years that it has been listed as an “impaired water body” by both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. Lehigh's own water quality analyses have demonstrated that quarry pit wastewater that Lehigh discharges into the creek has been 16 times higher than Clean Water Act stream standards. Such pollution would be especially harmful to aquatic life in downstream areas such as Rancho San Antonio County Park, where selenium concentrations are often more than five times higher than state and federal standards allow.

On June 7, 2012, the County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors approved amendments to the 1985 Permanente Quarry Reclamation Plan for Lehigh Southwest Cement Company, including approval of a new waste material storage area (EMSA) at the east end of the quarry. The newly approved Reclamation Plan has 89 conditions (significantly more than the 73 conditions in the 1985 Amendment), and calls for higher performance standards for re-vegetation of all disturbed areas, minimizing selenium runoff and an increased level of reporting and monitoring. The Board also ratified the Final Environmental Impact Report in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act.

In December 2012 the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District filed a lawsuit against Santa Clara County, challenging the reclamation plan for Lehigh Southwest Cement's Permanente Quarry near Cupertino, saying its environmental impact report failed to analyze and mitigate the project's impacts on air quality, hazardous materials, recreation, groundwater and endangered species.

In 2013, Lehigh settled the lawsuit by paying at least $10 million "to implement a water treatment system." Part of the settlement is "a $12 million surety bond to guarantee that the work is done."

2011 shooting

On October 5, 2011, the Lehigh Southwest Cement plant was the site of a shooting committed by a disgruntled employee, 47-year-old Shareef Allman. During a safety meeting at 4:00 a.m., Allman opened fire with a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle and a .40-caliber handgun, killing three coworkers and wounding six others. He later shot and wounded a woman and attempted to carjack her a few hours after the shooting. The shooting prompted a manhunt which caused a lockdown to some schools and businesses in nearby communities. Allman was confronted by Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies the next day in a neighborhood in Sunnyvale, in which he pointed a firearm towards them and three deputies responded with gunfire. It was initially reported that Allman died from the officer's gunshots, but it was later determined he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

See also

• Guadalupe Valley Creek
• Rockaway Quarry

External links

• Map images of the quarry.
• Committee for Green Foothills (group against expansion of the quarry)
• News article about the cement plant
• Information on the City of Cupertino Website