Sunol Valley is located in Alameda County

Alameda County, California

Alameda County is a county in the U.S. state of California. It occupies most of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 1,510,271, making it the 7th most populous county in the state...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, USA. The small town of Sunol

Sunol, California

Sunol is an unincorporated census-designated place in Alameda County, California, United States. The population was 913 at the 2010 census....

 lies in the valley. It is largely rural, but is in proximity to the highly populated Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

 suburbs of Fremont

Fremont, California

Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...

, Pleasanton

Pleasanton, California

Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, California, incorporated in 1894. It is a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area located about east of Oakland, and west of Livermore. The population was 70,285 at the 2010 census. In 2005 and 2007, Pleasanton was ranked the wealthiest middle-sized city in...

, and Livermore

Livermore, California

Livermore is a city in Alameda County. The population as of 2010 was 80,968. Livermore is located on the eastern edge of California's San Francisco Bay Area....

.
Interstate 680

Interstate 680 (California)

Interstate 680 is a north–south Interstate Highway in Northern California. It curves around the eastern cities of the San Francisco Bay Area from San Jose to Interstate 80 at Cordelia, bypassing cities along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay such as Oakland and Richmond while serving...

 runs through the valley. The historic Sunol Water Temple

Sunol Water Temple

The Sunol Water Temple is located at 505 Paloma Way in Sunol, California. Designed by Willis Polk, the 59 foot high classical pavilion is made up of twelve concrete Corinthian columns and a concrete ring girder that supports the conical wood and tile roof...

 is situated in the Sunol Valley. Historically steelhead have run as high as the Sunol Valley via Alameda Creek

Alameda Creek

Alameda Creek is a large perennial stream in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creek runs for from a lake northeast of Packard Ridge to the eastern shore San Francisco Bay by way of Niles Canyon and a flood control channel.-History:...

, and restoration plans are underway to restore such anadromous fish runs. These restoration plans by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is a public agency of the City and County of San Francisco that provides water, wastewater, and power services to the City and an additional 1.6 million customers within three San Francisco Bay Area counties.The SFPUC manages a complex water supply...

 include the planned modification of a Pacific Gas and Electric pipeline that has blocked fish migration in Alameda Creek.

The Sunol Valley Rock Quarry is located within the Sunol Valley; this facility has been used as the source for fill material in a considerable amount of the land development for neighboring communities. In the course of excavating this quarry for such fill, chemical analysis has been conducted to ascertain the safety of such soils. Resultant analyses have shown that the soil has environmentally safe characteristics as defined by low or non-detectable concentrations of 18 heavy metals

Heavy metals

A heavy metal is a member of a loosely-defined subset of elements that exhibit metallic properties. It mainly includes the transition metals, some metalloids, lanthanides, and actinides. Many different definitions have been proposed—some based on density, some on atomic number or atomic weight,...

 and asbestos

Asbestos

Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...

fibers.