US: Environmental groups have welcomed the imminent start of work to rehabilitate Heidelberg Materials’ former Permanente cement plant and quarry in California, which ceased operations in 2023. The project, to start on 29 July 2025, will clean up a polluted section of the Permanente Creek, which flows from the Santa Cruz Mountains past the quarry site an into the San Francisco Bay.
The work was required as part of the settlement to a lawsuit filed in 2011 by the Sierra Club against Lehigh Southwest Cement company, which was subsequently acquired by Heidelberg Materials. Under the settlement, the company is required to restore 2.7km of the creek by 2030. The restoration will remove sediment that contains selenium, nickel and other heavy metals that have washed out of the quarry over the years. Workers also will plant native vegetation, build pools for trout, and stabilise slopes. The project's cost is estimated at US$25m, according to Heidelberg Materials’ David Perkins.
Environmental groups have said the work is overdue. "We're relieved that it's finally actually happening," said Katja Irvin, Guadalupe Group chair of the Sierra Club's Loma Prieta Chapter, based in Palo Alto. "There is mining waste in the creek, and concrete barriers in the creek. The slopes have been eroded. All of those problems eventually will be fixed.”
