By Lauren McSherry

Hanson Quarry and the Committee for Green Foothills may disagree about what precipitated the quarry’s agreement to stop dumping waste rock and revegetate the hillside scar visible from Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. But that doesn’t mean the two groups don’t share any common ground.

The quarry recently rearranged its dumping process to speed up revegetating the site upon a suggestion from the committee, said John Giovanola, community affairs manager for Hanson Permanente.

According to a 1985 agreement between the quarry and Santa Clara County, the quarry must stop depositing waste rock and revegetate the hillside once the mound of rock and soil reaches a certain height.

To accelerate the process, the quarry recently began concentrating debris in the most visible section of the scar. It expects to meet the height limit by the middle or end of the summer and has already started revegetating part of the hillside with native grasses, trees and shrubs.

The quarry also plans to plant 650 more native trees and shrubs to ensure faster restoration this fall.

Giovanola and Brian Schmidt, committee spokesman, agreed that open communication helped speed up the process, bringing about a resolution that looked like it was years off.

The committee and Hanson do disagree, however, on what brought about the quarry’s change of plans.

The committee alleges that Hanson did an about-face after pressure from Green Foothills’ yearlong campaign to heal the scar. Schmidt said that since the committee started the campaign, Hanson changed three of its positions.

He said that Hanson had stated it would take several more years to reach the height limit; that it was going to apply for an increase in the waste rock height by 100 feet; and that it would only revegetate the bottom half of the scar with shrubs and trees.

Giovanola does not believe any controversy exists, and that Hanson’s recent decisions had to do with mining operations reaching a certain point designated in the reclamation agreement with the county.

“We didn’t feel any pressure from them,” Giovanola said. “It was a matter of where we were in the plan.”

Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. mines about 5 million tons of rock annually from its 3,500-acre site in Cupertino.

About a third of that is waste rock that is set down on the hillside.