The Environment
I have broadened my Civil Engineering education in the past 2.5 years by completing Basic and Advanced Certificate programs in Environmental Studies including courses on CEQA, EIRs, Phase I Environmental Site assessments, Brownfields cleanups, ISO 14001, design for the environment, Environmental Law, Climate Change in California, Cupertino’s General Plan, Zoning, CAP 2.0, and more. This has enabled me to make even more informed decisions and ask in-depth questions to protect the construction workers, neighbors, and future residents from hazardous waste and other construction and operational hazards which some developers have tried to ignore.
Locally, being bordered by the Lehigh Cement plant and Stevens Creek Quarry, and living in the county with the most Superfund sites of any county in the U.S., we have had a history of environmental challenges due to the nature and proximity of these facilities and those of the historic orchards and chip industry, along with having two major freeways and several arterials, while being south of at least 5 refineries and the major Port of Oakland. As 4 time Chair of the Environmental Review Committee I brought the first training sessions to both that committee and councilmembers to educate these bodies on CEQA.
Lehigh Cement Plant
In the coming months the Lehigh Cement Plant will have opportunities to comment on the proposed Reclamation Plan. The plan includes filling in a pit which will require 600 new truck trips per day over an astonishing 30 years. Accepting clean fill would provide income to Lehigh, but where that much fill would come from is a mystery. It will take several years to negotiate through to a workable solution for the neighbors and our Council needs to be proactive to support them.
While being allowed to significantly pollute the County for decades, and at the end of their high quality limestone supply, it was Santa Clara County’s decision, championed by Supervisor Joe Simitian, to collaborate with Midpen to “Don’t Chop the Top!” that effectively halted the plant’s cement making operation. The “top” was a viewshed easement agreement in place for decades and now jointly held by the County and Midpen in a “belt and suspenders” approach, as Supervisor Simitian called it, to prevent the easement being vacated.
Lehigh wanted to expand another 30 acres into an area with some limestone which would have likely collapsed the viewshed, with that decision made and the expansion area denied, and limestone being a necessary component to cement, the plant had run out of raw material and has exported remaining cement and crushed rock since then. You may visit the Santa Clara County Lehigh information page here and a summary San Jose Spotlight article here.
Pollinators and California Natives
I support our smallest residents, our pollinators, and I have done this by advocating for pollinator pathways and supporting non-functional turf conversion to California Natives and requiring the use of California Natives on city and commercial properties. We all enjoy the cool shade of a large tree, we also need to support tall canopy trees to make walking more enjoyable while cooling the environment. See my blog post Native Planting Proposal for more information.
Vallco
There is a lot of misinformation on the Vallco/Rise project. In short, the approved SB 35 Vallco project has the most affordable homes of any version the developer has ever submitted, but it still has about 2 Million square feet of office space planned and 6,000 parking spaces for all of the office commuters.
“The Vallco project uses a housing law to worsen the housing shortage”
The Vallco site is also undergoing environmental cleanup for the hazardous waste on the site. I found, in 2021, that there was more hazardous waste when the developer had claimed the site had a clean bill of health in 2019, and the developer entered into an agreement for Regulatory oversight by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health in April, 2021. The cleanup documents are now available on the Geotracker website and I have pasted the landing page for this site below.
Our city needs councilmembers, like myself, who are educated and willing to read documents like these you will find on Geotracker, and review thousands of pages of environmental documents which Council is tasked with reading and deciding whether to certify:
VALLCO TOWN CENTER (T10000017167) - (MAP)
10123 NORTH WOLFE ROADCUPERTINO, CA 95014SANTA CLARA COUNTYCLEANUP PROGRAM SITE (INFO) OPEN - REMEDIATION AS OF 11/15/2022 - DEFINITION
PRINTABLE CASE SUMMARY / CSM REPORT
CLEANUP OVERSIGHT AGENCIES
SANTA CLARA COUNTY LOP (LEAD) - CASE #: 2021-16s
CASE MANAGER: Gerald O'Regan
Regulatory Profile
CLEANUP STATUS - DEFINITIONS
OPEN - REMEDIATION AS OF 11/15/2022 - CLEANUP STATUS HISTORY
POTENTIAL CONTAMINANTS OF CONCERN BENZENE, DIESEL, LEAD, OTHER CHLORINATED HYDROCARBONS, OTHER INSECTICIDES / PESTICIDE / FUMIGANTS / HERBICIDES, POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS (PCBS), TETRACHLOROETHYLENE (PCE), TRICHLOROETHYLENE (TCE)
POTENTIAL MEDIA OF CONCERNCONTAMINATED SURFACE / STRUCTURE, INDOOR AIR, SOIL VAPOR
FILE LOCATIONALL FILES ARE ON GEOTRACKER OR IN THE LOCAL AGENCY DATABASE
DESIGNATED GROUNDWATER BENEFICIAL USE(S) - DEFINITIONS MUN, AGR, IND, PROC
DWR GROUNDWATER SUB-BASIN NAMESanta Clara Valley - Santa Clara (2-009.02)
CALWATER WATERSHED NAMESanta Clara - Palo Alto (205.50)
