Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Rite Aid Corp. Ordered to Pay $12.3 Million Settlement
The lawsuit alleged that employees at 600 stores unlawfully handled and disposed of hazardous materials.
Rite Aid Corp. was ordered today to pay more than $12.3 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged employees at about 600 California stores unlawfully handled and disposed of hazardous materials, such as bleaches and pesticides, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said.
The judgment requires Rite Aid Corp. to pay $10.35 million in penalties and costs, including $1.325 million to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, according to Lacey. The company, based in Camp Hill, Pa., will also pay about $1.9 million for environmental projects that further consumer protection and environmental enforcement in the state, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Rite Aid has a store in Diamond Bar at 2997 S. Diamond Bar Boulevard.
Los Angeles County environmental regulators will receive $332,000 as part of the settlement.
The judgment marks the culmination of a environmental protection lawsuit filed by the district attorneys of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Joaquin Counties. In all, 52 district attorneys from California and two city attorneys joined in the action, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
The case began with an investigation in the fall of 2009 by local environmental health agencies and expanded with a series of waste inspections at Rite Aid facilities and landfills across the state, according to the District Attorney's Office.
The products allegedly discarded included pesticides, bleach, paint, aerosols, automotive products and solvents, pharmaceutical and bio-hazardous wastes and other toxic, ignitable and corrosive materials.
Rite Aid Corp. now works with state-registered haulers to document, collect and dispose of hazardous waste produced through damage, spills and returns, and has implemented a computerized scanning system and other environmental training to manage its waste, according to the District Attorney's Office.
--City News Service
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