2003 was an extremely busy year at Lehigh Cement Company in Mason City, IA, with the completion of three environmental projects. The projects included reclamation of Blue Waters Pond, remediation of the Old CKD Waste Disposal Site and remediation of the North Site. As a result, Mason City received several honors this year for its land stewardship efforts, including:
The second project involved the required capping of the Old CKD Waste Disposal Site that was closed in the fall of 2002 when Lehigh's new CKD landfill became constructed and certified. The remediation involved compacting the CKD and covering it with clay, topsoil and waterway hay mix. The area has gone from an ugly CKD waste site to a natural, contoured hillside next to a small lake.
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The old limestone quarry in front of the plant, known as Blue Waters Pond, directly off Highway 65 North, was an unwelcome site to visitors entering Mason City, with weeds growing over the barren rock bottom. The reclamation of Blue Waters Pond was a joint venture by Lehigh Cement Company, the North End Partnership in Mason City, the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Corporation. Lehigh Cement Company transformed an area that once looked like the craters of the moon to a field that will be thriving with wildflowers and prairie grasses by summer. 
The third project involved voluntarily remediating a former cement manufacturing waste disposal area known as the North Site. The area had potential of negatively impacting the environment due to exposed CKD in close proximity to a surrounding wetland. Lehigh Cement Company, with approval from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, properly disposed of the manufacturing waste, formed proper slopes for drainage, capped the CKD and planted grasses and forbs.
