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BACKGROUND A hot mix asphalt plant produces asphalt concrete by mixing gravel and sand with crude oil derivatives. This asphalt is used to pave roads and parking lots. Sometimes rubber and recycled asphalt are added to the mix to make rubberized asphalt, which is also used for roads. In the summer of 2002, Granite Construction Company constructed and started to operate a hot mix asphalt plant on land now owned by CEMEX in the unincorporated area of Alameda County. Although the address for this plant is 1544 Stanley Boulevard, the plant is physically located east of the Vineyard Avenue Corridor adjacent to the arroyo. It is also within 1,000 feet of the Vineyard Avenue site where Neal Elementary may be built. Alameda County staff approved this plant without subjecting it to any public review process. In the late 1950's, Alameda County issued a Quarry Permit for the property now owned by CEMEX. Apparently, at that time, there was an asphalt plant located on the property and the use of the property for "asphalt batching plants" was permitted "at the location as presently conducted." No CEQA review was conducted at that time in that CEQA was not adopted until 1971. Later, the use of that plant was discontinued. In 1977, the County Planning Commission approved a permit for the construction of another asphalt batch plant on this site but in a location much further northeasterly of the current batch plant. In approving this permit, the County adopted a Negative Declaration. Interestingly, the City of Pleasanton appealed this decision due to concerns of additional truck traffic, but the Board of Supervisors denied the appeal. That plant, however, was never built. In 2002, Granite Construction Company sought approval from the County to build a portable hot mix asphalt plant. (The County has indicated that after 1977, there was on the property a portable asphalt plant of the same size and capacity as the plant built by Granite; this portable plant was located about 200 feet away from where the new plant was eventually constructed.) The County staff gave administrative approval as to this new plant. That staffs rationale for so doing was based on the original Quarry Permit issued in the 1950's, the modifications made in 1977, the fact that the plant would replace a comparable plant of similar size and capacity, and that the County had never received a post approval complaint about any asphalt plant in the County. Accordingly, the County staff determined that the approval was a ministerial act with only building permits required. In 2002, Granite also received a permit from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to operate its hot mix asphalt plant. The application that Granite submitted certified that plant was not within 1,000 feet of the outer boundary of the nearest school and provided that a CEQA document had been prepared for this project by Alameda County. (The certification is technically accurate in that there is a school site, but not an actual school, within 1,000 feet; the Air Quality Management District checked the database of schools from the California Department of Education and that database indicated there was no school within 1,000 feet of the proposed plant. As to CEQA, unless Granite was referring to the 1977 Negative Declaration, its statement seems Page 2 of 5