Since at least 2021, an unpermitted industrial waste operation has been running at 18955 Industry Way — within feet of people's homes — crushing, grinding, and stockpiling construction debris and serpentine rock with no environmental oversight and no dust controls.
The operation first ran under a grading permit. When that permit was revoked in July 2022 for violating County regulations, the operators applied for a building permit to place a small mobile home on the property — a project that would allow them to continue "grading" the lot. No home was ever built. County records, including email correspondence between the operators and the then-Director of Community Development, suggest that County staff helped the operators find this workaround to keep the operation going after the grading permit was pulled.
In late 2021, in response to neighbor complaints, the County arranged for laboratory testing of material at the site. The results, dated January 11, 2022, confirmed that serpentine rock being crushed at the site contains Chrysotile and Tremolite asbestos — two of the most dangerous forms of the mineral — at concentrations far exceeding state and federal safety thresholds. The County did not disclose these results to the neighbors. It did not require an Asbestos Dust Mitigation Plan. It did not shut down the operation. For more than four years, the neighbors were never told that the dust blowing into their homes and settling on their property may contain asbestos.
During those years, materials of all kinds were crushed and stockpiled at the site. Stormwater flowed through the piles and off the property, carrying orange-stained runoff — a visible sign of mineral leaching — into drainage channels, a creek, and a pond on neighboring land. Residents who had lived in this quiet, rural neighborhood for decades found themselves breathing dust, inhaling diesel exhaust, enduring constant noise from heavy equipment, and wondering what was seeping into their well water. No agency has ever tested the water.
These conditions continued for years. In March 2024, the County's own Code Compliance division issued a formal notice finding the site to be operating as an unlawful construction-and-demolition debris recycling facility — though it is worth noting that asbestos-containing material is not "inert" debris by any regulatory definition. The notice gave the operators until May 22, 2024 to come into compliance. That deadline passed without enforcement. Then, just three months later, County Public Works deposited Tuolumne Road surface material at the very same site over the course of three consecutive nights in August 2024 — without a permit, without notice to the neighbors, and without regard for the asbestos the County already knew was there.
For years, the neighbors brought their concerns to every agency and official they could reach. They were told, over and over, that there was no violation — that the operation was permitted and legal. This was not true. State health and environmental regulations, which the County is required to enforce, impose clear standards and mandatory oversight on facilities like the one at 18955 Industry Way. The County failed to apply them. When the neighbors had exhausted every other option — complaints, letters, public comment, appeals to their elected representatives — they were left with no choice but to turn to the courts. On August 3, 2026, eight plaintiffs from five households filed a civil action in Tuolumne County Superior Court.
Superior Court of California, County of Tuolumne