Walmart’s $7.5 million settlement with California Attorney General Rob Bonta over the company’s alleged dumping of toxic waste into municipal landfills made headlines last month as an environmental win for the state.
But what got less attention is that it is just the latest in California’s aggressive crackdown on environmental injustice and hazardous waste. The Walmart settlement shows how Bonta’s office has put some muscle into the push with “sting operations” to find violations and get compensation for California counties, said Noah Perch-Ahern, an environmental partner at the Los Angeles-based law firm Greenberg Glusker.
That involves significant field work, said Perch-Ahern, including some good old-fashioned dumpster diving.
In the Walmart case, environmental protection investigators from Alameda County’s Consumer Justice Bureau conducted “covert waste inspections” from 2015 to 2021 documenting toxic aerosols and liquid wastes like bleach, pesticides and rust removers, over-the-counter drugs and private consumer information that was transported to local landfills.
“What I’m calling a sting operation, they call it an audit. They will actually go through the dumpster,” Perch-Ahern said, adding that each violation can cost up to $70,000. “$7.5 million may sound like a lot, but if you tallied every theoretical violation, the number may be orders of magnitude higher than that.”
Besides Bonta’s office, additional plaintiffs in the lawsuit included the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and district attorneys from Fresno, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernadino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Solano, Tulare, and Yolo Counties who filed an initial lawsuit against Walmart in December 2021.
Civil penalties in the settlement amount to $4.3 million, while the other $3.2 million represents reimbursements the company will make to the counties.
The settlement also stipulates that Walmart pay for an independent auditor to monitor the waste practices of California Walmart locations three times a year for the next four years.
The terms of the settlement must be approved by an Alameda County Superior Court judge.
When the settlement was announced on Oct. 23, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price praised the efforts of bureau investigators.
“I commend my office’s Consumer Justice Bureau’s active involvement in this investigation which helped bring this settlement forward and hold Walmart to account,” Price said in a statement.
The settlement is Bonta’s latest effort to reign in corporations that flout California’s environmental laws. Earlier this year, he announced a pioneering environmental lawsuit against ExxonMobil for plastic pollution and a “campaign of deception” regarding plastic recycling.
“Walmart’s illegal disposal of hazardous and medical waste not only violated California laws, but, if left unchecked, posed a threat to human health and the environment,” Bonta said in a statement. “As a result of this investigation and lawsuit, Walmart has taken significant steps to prevent such disposals from happening in the future. This settlement will ensure that Walmart takes the necessary steps to ensure that its hazardous waste is handled and disposed of as required by law.”
Other Northern California district attorneys said the settlement was a step toward protecting California residents and the environment. In wildfire-scarred Monterey County, District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni said the settlement does more than protect consumers, it helps prevent hazardous waste that can result in fires. Ron Freitas, the San Joaquin County District Attorney, said he valued the efforts of the retail giant to bring a “cleaner, safer environment” for the San Joaquin community.
Price used the settlement as a message — and a warning — to other corporations about the legal consequences of failing to take California’s environmental laws seriously.
“Large corporations must be held accountable when they do not follow the law, and put the health and safety of Alameda County residents at risk,” Price said.
