Vallejo cement plant ordered to cease operations by Bay Area Air Quality District

VALLEJO —  The Bay Area Air Quality Management District ordered Vallejo concrete facility Crown Hill Materials to cease operations on Monday for operating a concrete batch plant without the required air quality permit. 

The air district issued a Notice of Violation and a cease-and-desist letter to Crown Hill, stating that “Crown Hill Materials is operating without a required permit, in violation of federal, state, and Air District laws.”

Crown Hill Materials, located at 1888 Broadway St., sells landscaping materials such as decorative rock, construction aggregates, ready mix concrete, masonry supplies, and stone products. They also operate two concrete batching plants, which mix Portland cement, sand and gravel into dry concrete. Their cement mixer trucks can deliver up to ten cubic yards of concrete to a construction site. 

The Notice of Violation applies only to the larger of the two cement batching plants. The smaller plant is exempt from air district permitting requirements. Crown Hill declined to comment.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, cement plants are a significant source of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide, which can contribute to health and environmental problems.

Ed Kelley has lived on a small residential street behind Crown Hills Materials since 1975. He said he’s been complaining about the company since they purchased the land from a nursery that sold only plants. The company gradually transitioned to landscaping materials, began storing manure on the site, which generated odor complaints, and then installed concrete mixing equipment that dusts the surrounding neighborhood.

Kelley and his wife Mona keep two air purifiers running in their home and say they have to change the filters frequently. Dust from the concrete plant coats their backyard furniture, erodes metal and solidifies when it gets wet. Their attic is full of dust that seeps into the house through little cracks.

A statement released by the Air District in June said the first dust complaint about Crown Hills Materials they received was in 2022. But Kelley said he started complaining about cement dust in 1999. The operation date for the cement plant cited on the Notice of Violation is Jan. 29, 2019. 

Kelley recalled inviting Erin Hannigan over when she was on Vallejo City Council between 2007 and 2012. “She'd come by once in a while and sit out front and watch the dust, and she said, ‘We got to stop this.’” Kelley said that Hannigan returned to his home again in her capacity as Solano County supervisor and told him, “We’re going to take care of it.”

Kelley said he has also raised the issue with City Council member Charles Palmares and Solano County Supervisor Cassandra James. “Things go on and on and then nothing ever happens,” he said.

Kelley said that he attended a Vallejo Planning Commission meeting on Jan. 17, 2024, during which Crown Hill Materials applied for a permit to legalize equipment that had been installed without permits. After hearing public comments, the commission voted to continue the meeting to a date uncertain without issuing a permit. Kelley said Crown Hill Materials never stopped running the concrete plant, but instead ramped up operations, increasing their fleet of cement trucks from three to 15.

The air district said it increased its oversight of the company after receiving 23 complaints in 2024. 

But even after repeated visits, the air district said in their June statement that monitors did not observe high enough levels of dust crossing the property line to issue a citation. 

It wasn’t until the Air District’s Deputy Executive Officer of Engineering and Compliance Meredith Bauer got involved that Crown Hill Materials’ lack of equipment permitting was identified as a way to reduce the dust. “The city, the county, the state, the federal government, obviously didn't care about us until I hit the right button,” Kelley said. “I got a hold of Meredith, that it seems like we’re getting somewhere.” 

Vallejo Citizen Air Monitoring Network Executive Director Ken Szutu is working with the district’s Compliance & Enforcement Ad Hoc Committee to update and expand rules related to fugitive dust emissions.

Szutu said they are using Crown Hill Materials as a case study, because even though visible pollution occurs on a daily basis, it is very hard to enforce when it happens only occasionally and when the inspector arrives they don’t see anything. 

Szutu said that his group will continue to monitor the situation. They’ll be vigilant for emissions from the smaller, exempt plant, and keep an eye on what happens if a permit is issued for the cited plant. “This is not the end of the story,” Szutu said.

Kelley said that few of his neighbors are willing to complain. Only two other neighbors, a couple who said their drapes and carpet were ruined by concrete dust, and a family who spoke about the dust and noise, came to his neighborhood meetings. “I've been the sole complainer, fighter for my neighborhood,” he said.

Kelley said his crusade is not only about himself and his family, but for the neighborhood and nearby Griffin Academy. “I think everybody here has a right not to have to breathe that stuff,” he said.