"It is a huge scar," said Schmidt, Santa Clara County legislative advocate of the Committee for Green Hills, a nonprofit group devoted to preserving the foothills. "The mile-long scar is visible to thousands of people, from Milpitas to Palo Alto."

Schmidt said the scar is the most obvious evidence of the Hanson Permanente Cement's several environmental violations.

Hanson, which has its home base in England, has denied all allegations and said it has initiated environmentally friendly programs such as planting native plants on the dirt stripe—the brown scar that Schmidt sees from his office. Hanson calls the brown patch a "viewshed."

The area in question is a 5-acre section of land where Hanson Permanente Cement puts its waste rock, also known as "overburden," from the pit. Hanson also calls this area the west materials storage area. It's located at the northern end of the quarry.

The Committee for Green Hills has identified three problems with the area. The dumping of waste rocks has caused a visual impact. Second, because the quarry started its operations in 1939, the committee says Hanson is not bound by a 1972 ridgeline protection easement, requiring quarry operators to preserve ridgelines and shield the massive quarry operations from public view. The committee also claims that landslides from the quarry might have collapsed adjacent land owned by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

"It's time for the public to speak up and demand a solution to these violations," Schmidt said.

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District—an independent organization with the single purpose of preserving regional open space lands in a natural condition—has clarified some of the accusations.

"The storage material is not causing landslides, and the storage area is not where the landslides are occurring," said Kristi Webb, public affairs specialist for the Midpeninsula group.

According to Webb, when the open space district purchased land adjacent to the quarry in 1977, it also inherited a boundary-location dispute, with the disputed property line located on the opposite site of the pit from the west materials storage area.

Since 1977, the district has discussed the disputed property line with Hanson Permanente Cement. In 2000, the district also studied with Santa Clara County officials to understand the county's ridgeline easement and county regulatory jurisdiction about the quarry. But there is no significant progress so far.

Stewart Smith, vice president of operation of Hanson Permanente Cement, said the easement issue will be resolved next year when the company and the county renegotiate the company's operation contract. In the meantime, he urges Schmidt and his group to be patient and welcomes everyone to check out the ongoing restoration project at the west materials storage area.

"You cannot make vegetation grow overnight," Smith said.

Lee Cover, the cement company's environmental manager, said Hanson hired specialists to collect the seeds of surrounding native plants and grow them in a nearby nursery. Cover's department just planted these shrubs last year.

"These are moderate-growth plants. We expect people to see them from a distance in three years," Cover said. "But they will brown out in the summer, like other native plants. So the brown part might seem bigger as the weather gets dry."