Photos of the Hanson Quarry and its foothill scar
Posted February 18, 2004 / Updated March 3, 2004

In the hills above Cupertino, a huge expanse of rock and dirt scars the hillsides, visible by tens of thousands of people from Milpitas to Palo Alto. For years now, this scar has been expanding and becoming ever more visible - despite the view protections that we thought had been agreed upon between Santa Clara County and the owners of the land.

This mile-long scar is the most visible evidence of Hanson Quarry's several likely environmental violations, all of which encroach on our viewsheds.

• Satellite image of the Hanson Quarry operation
• Aerial photo, Hanson Quarry, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills
• Closeup aerial photo, Hanson Quarry
• View from the valley floor (San Antonio Road and Foothill Expressway, downtown Los Altos)
• Description of the scar's components

For more details, read our action alert or Spring 2004 newsletter article on the quarry.
   

Aerial photo, Hanson Quarry, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, August 2002

Highway 280 can be seen from the top left-hand corner and going down to the middle of the right edge. The bright green links of the Los Altos Golf Club are clearly visible just above Highway 280. The Hanson Permanente Quarry is towards the bottom of this picture.

View from the valley floor (San Antonio Road and Foothill Expressway, downtown Los Altos)

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Description of the scar's components

Here you can see that the scar visible from the valley floor consists of a number of elements. Starting at the bottom and moving upslope you see:

•  An area of topsoil from which all vegetation has been scraped
•  A narrow section that appears to have been graded flat to serve as an access road
•  A number of successive terraces created by the deposition of many hundreds of truckloads of rock, distinguishable from topsoil by their color.

The pictures below provide different views of the same area. The first is looking from Los Altos (San Antonio Hills) towards the ocean, the second is a closeup from that same perspective. The third picture is looking towards the west, much like the large picture above but taken from further away and a slightly higher altitude to provide the broader view.

These three pictures were taken right after the first rains in the fall of 2003 (2nd week of November).

In the middle picture you can see where the run-off has collected in a turbid pool at the western (right-hand) end of the quarry. The overflow from this pool, and other rivulets of run-off from around this new mountain will work their way downhill somewhere - some of which will likely end up in a creek, contributing to siltation and its associated effects on the habitat.

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Take action now -- ask Santa Clara County to prevent further environmental damage from this quarry.