Firestone auto care centers to settle dumping charges with DAs for $4M
A prominent chain of auto-repair and maintenance shops will pay nearly $4 million in settlement and other fees to resolve a complaint from more than two dozen California district attorneys, alleging shoddy practices that led to hazardous waste improperly ending up in the trash, alongside non-shredded customer records.
Firestone Complete Auto Care, which operates more than 150 locations in the state, was ordered last week to pay $2.865 million in civil fines plus $350,000 to compensate Santa Clara and Alameda county prosecutors for their multiyear investigation, on top of $725,000 new training and compliance measures in accordance with a settlement. Bridgestone Americas Inc. operates as Firestone in California.
The monetary penalties were announced Monday by the two Bay Area district attorney offices. The case eventually expanded to involve 27 other jurisdictions by the time Friday’s settlement was finalized, including San Diego, San Bernardino and Orange counties.
According to prosecutors, the investigation was launched in 2016 based on unannounced inspections of Firestone trash containers by Santa Clara and Alameda DA investigators, revealing partially filled containers of solvents, automotive fluids and aerosols, as well as batteries and unspecified electronic devices. These materials typically cannot be safely discarded in the trash and must handled through specific hazardous waste disposal services.
Those inspections also revealed evidence that customer records were also tossed, unshredded and unredacted, into the trash, creating a privacy invasion risk.
In a statement, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, “Hazardous waste does not belong in the air, on the ground, in the water, or in this case, headed to a regular landfill.” Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said the settlement signifies a commitment “to hold companies accountable for the harm they cause to Alameda County’s precious natural resources by violating our state’s important environmental laws.”
Bridgestone released a statement acknowledging that company officials learned of the investigation in October 2019, and that it “uncovered potential gaps in the implementation of our policies regarding the handling and disposal of hazardous waste and customer information.” The company added that it “moved immediately to address these issues.”
“We have increased teammate training activities and resources across our California stores, hired a dedicated California compliance officer, and established an updated compliance review process to ensure full compliance with our own internal standards as well as those of the relevant regulatory agencies,” the statement reads.