Court approves Lehigh Cement settlement to reduce air emissions in Cupertino

The settlement will reduce harmful air emissions at Lehigh Cement and Lehigh White Cement portland cement manufacturing plants nationwide, including their Cupertino plant. The settlement resolves alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. As part of the settlement, Lehigh will invest $12 million in pollution control technology at 11 of their portland cement manufacturing plants, three of which are in California.

In addition to investing in pollution control technology, Lehigh will:

• Pay $119,353 to the Air District as part of a total of $1.3 million in civil penalties to U.S. EPA and state and local regulatory agencies.
• Be required to meet tightened emission limits of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.
• Embark on a “test and set” protocol over the next year to determine the lowest possible sulfur dioxide emissions rate that can be attained at the Cupertino facility.
• Address visible emissions of kiln stack plumes by preparing a protocol specifically for the Cupertino facility which details all steps taken to mitigate excess visible emissions.

Nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide are two key pollutants emitted from cement plants that are damaging to the environment and can cause health impacts. The reduction of these pollutants is also expected to reduce fine particulate matter emissions from the facility.

View more information(164 Kb PDF, 3 pgs, revised 02/03/2021) about this consent decree. 

View press release(298 Kb PDF, 2 pgs, posted 14/12/2020)( English | Tagalog | Español | 中文 ).