Yolo County will share in a $12.3 million settlement paid by the Rite Aid Corporation over allegations that California’s 600-plus Rite Aid stores unlawfully handled and disposed of hazardous waste and materials over a seven-year period, District Attorney Jeff Reisig announced Wednesday.
More than $600,000 of the settlement will go to Yolo County, which has six Rite Aid stores as well as a Northern California distribution center based in Woodland.
“Environmental crimes attack finite resources such as landfills and our water,” Reisig said in a news release. “There is only one landfill in Yolo County and we all share it.”
The settlement order, filed Tuesday in San Joaquin Superior Court, stems from a civil lawsuit filed by a statewide team of 52 district attorneys and two city attorneys. The suit alleged that Rite Aid mishandled hazardous products including pesticides, bleach, paint, aerosols, automotive products, solvents, pharmaceuticals, bio hazardous wastes, and other ignitable and corrosive materials.
According to Reisig, the case began in 2009 when environmental health agencies across the state began investigating issues with the handling of hazardous waste materials at California’s Rite Aid stores. Prosecutors from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office — along with deputy district attorneys and investigators from Yolo, San Diego , San Joaquin and Riverside counties and environmental statewide regulators — conducted numerous inspections of hazardous waste at Rite Aid facilities and at landfills throughout California .
Investigators found that Rite Aid — including the Yolo County stores and Woodland distribution center — was transporting hazardous waste and disposing it at landfills, Reisig said.
The DA’s Consumer Fraud and Environmental Protection Division handled the investigation and prosecution on behalf of Yolo County, which assisted in 30 of the more than 40 inspections statewide. Yolo County’s Environmental Health Department also assisted with the investigation and preparation of the case.
As part of the monetary settlement, Rite Aid must fund several environmental projects that further consumer protection and environmental enforcement in California. The agreement also includes a permanent injunction prohibiting Rite Aid from committing future violations.
Additionally, the California Hazardous Materials Investigators Association, of which Yolo County District Attorney Senior Enforcement Officer Heidi D’Agostino serves vice president, will receive $100,000 for training and education of statewide environmental investigators.