San Diego County will receive $100,000 in civil penalties and costs as part of a $3.38 million settlement of a lawsuit alleging the operators of 57 AutoNation dealerships and collision centers in California illegally disposed of hazardous waste and violated laws related to the storage of hazardous materials and the disposal of customer records, it was announced Monday.
The lawsuit was filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court by District Attorney Jeff Rosen and seven other California district attorneys, including San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan.
“San Diego County is a beautiful place to live and protecting our county by making sure hazardous waste is handled properly is one way to safeguard a healthy environment,” Stephan said. “When a company thumbs its nose at environmental laws, we’re going to hold them accountable.”
In addition to paying $2.1 million in penalties, the defendants agreed to pay $380,000 in costs and to spend $900,000 on projects designed to enhance their compliance with hazardous waste laws. As a term of the settlement, the AutoNation dealerships in California will now have a full-time environmental director who will monitor their environmental compliance and training.
The stipulated judgment resolves a case that began in 2013, when inspectors from the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health spotted hazardous waste violations inside the service departments of several AutoNation dealerships.
District Attorney investigators in several counties, including San Diego, conducted a string of undercover inspections of the dealerships’ trash containers, which revealed the illegal disposal of hazardous automotive fluids, non-empty aerosols such as brake parts cleaner, used oil filters, electronic waste and, at one dealership, used motor oil.
AutoNation, the country’s largest retailer of new automobiles, has two facilities in San Diego County — in Vista and Encinitas.
