California Attorney General Rob Bonta and five county district attorneys on Friday announced an $8 million settlement with Safeway regarding alleged violations of environmental laws at its 71 gas stations across the state.
The settlement, which along with the attorney general included the district attorneys of Contra Costa, Solano, San Joaquin, Sacramento and Placer counties, came after an investigation that found the grocery chain failed to install, implement and operate various spill prevention and other safety measures regarding underground fuel storage tanks dating back to 2015.
The violations included failing to install and maintain automatic line leak detectors, secondary containment systems, not monitoring and conducting required testing of the underground storage tanks, and not properly notifying local agencies after the release of a hazardous substance.
As part of the settlement, Safeway will pay $7.5 million in civil penalties, including $600,000 to fund environmental projects, as well as $500,000 in investigative costs.
“California has strong regulations in place to prevent oil and gas from seeping into the ground and contaminating our drinking water,” Bonta said. “The reality is: Accidents happen. Without proper safety measures in place, an avoidable crisis can become an environmental catastrophe.”
Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton said her office “is committed to the prevention of environmental hazards like fuel spills and holding companies accountable to laws regulating such things as underground storage tanks. The collaborative effort between the AG’s office and my fellow district attorneys — along with Safeway’s cooperation — resulted in this comprehensive environmental compliance settlement.”
Officials with Safeway were not immediately available for comment on the settlement.
20 comments
Interesting that the article doesn’t cite any accidental leakage or spills, only failures to comply with “environmental laws.” If there were any leaks, you can bet your last dollar they would be trumpeted throughout the media.
My guess is that Safeway chose the less expensive way to deal with the Green Weenies and their hired guns, simply to pay them off rather than fight in court. That’s how law suites are handled in today’s courts. The lawyers charge their target with anything and everything imaginable to make it fiscally difficult or impossible to fight. Lawyers call that “making a living,” and it should be against the law.
Reminds me of the ADA lawsuits peddled by lawyers that killed many small businesses that couldn’t afford to pay, so they were forced to shut down.
What do you think, was Shakespeare right when he wrote; “first we kill all the lawyers.”
There is leaks,but no way to detect it.And the fine would be greater for the leaks.So they won.
Wouldn’t you think the government would be inspecting fuel tank installations. What happened to that?
They are inspected prior to the issuance of operational permits.
Tugboat Then who is to blame?
Then who is to blame?
Talk about controlling you paycheck.Who control’s these morons?No one they want a pay raise more fines.Just fix the problem and call it good.The price of groceries just went up again.
Safeway is a ripoff not only with their outrageous prices (and record profits?).. but check your receipts! They recently charged my significant other for 17, yes seventeen heads of lettuce when just ONE was purchased. Having purchased many items that day we didn’t notice until back at home. They leave outdated sale tags on the shelves, outdated food on the shelves, their electronic system doesn’t recognize existing sale prices, they enter wrong codes for produce, etc., etc.. Just last night I spent extra time in the store asking for my $5+ back that they overcharged me. The system didn’t recognize the Lucerne milk sale price attached to my personalized app.. nor did it give me the 88 cent sale price for the Powerades I bought. It’s a constant problem at Safeway. Check your receipts.
Congratulations to Pat, this week’s winner of the “Totally Missed The Point” award. 🙂 😉 😉
Well done, Pat?
8 million is small price to pay for a “settlement of alleged misdoings” So now what happens? Do the stations get to continue to operate as if everything is they way it should be or should the stations be shut down?
Every station should be shut down till it meets the requirments,but they would lose money and stop paying taxes and that means big govt loses millions.billions over a giant corporation like Safeway.They paid to get this swept under the rug and it wont be fixed anytime soon.Citizens ESPECIALLY THE GREEN PEOPLE,should be having violent protests about this in front of Safeway CEO’s house,..where’s the outrage?They arernt even paying attention.Every Safeway gas station should have tree huggers blocking people’s access to the gas pumps.But their supreme leader hasn’t told them that this is wrong, they don’t have a clue.
And who in the Government signed off on this hot mess on the last inspection ?
Exactly.
The whole reason they retroffited all the gas stations was to install leak detectors and those that couldnt afford to were forced to shut dpwn.How did Safeway bypass the inspections required to continue selling gas after construction?Sounds like big corp paid someone off,it is California,so,you know……..
Now they need to investigate this but they won’t and arent even mentioning the blatant state and federal violations commited by Safeway,and the dstate itse;f for allowing them to cconduct business without lead detectors.It’s the reason so maany stations were torn down.It costs alot to meet Caalif environmental requirements and for Safeway to do it to all it stations would cost hundreds of millions..They need to change their name to “Sketchy”
Any gas station owner that lost his business over the leak detector requirement is very angry reading this.To put in leak detectors also meant removing.the steel underground gasoline storage tank that get condensation in the gas and replacing them with fibegrlass tanks while adding leak detectors,It cost $200000 to do and some couldnt finance and didnt have the cash so the place got torn down.They could have carried on just like Safeway.Safeway didnt want to spend millions,so they slipped someone $50 k to lose the file.
A LIBERAL of course.
The feds should be shutting every station untill fixed.
Too busy off on witch hunts though.
Out of 7.5 million dollars, only $600k is going to fund environmental programs. We should be asking where the rest is going.
PS
The leak detector law has been in effect for over 20 years,
They aren’t mentioning that.
It took this long for them to notice these violations and no environmental studies to see if it’s safe?
Nope,look at how much Safeway paid in taxes last year.
Wow eggs are going up to $10.00 a dozen
They can pay for it with their plastic bag fee rip-off
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