Del Grande Dealer Group in the San Francisco Bay Area of California has agreed to pay $290,000 to settle an environmental protection case brought by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
The civil complaint, filed by the public prosecutor’s office in local Superior Court in June, alleged that the dealership improperly disposed of brake parts cleaners, automotive fluids and circuit board parts.
Del Grande Dealer Group has 18 stores in Northern California.
The settlement also involved allegations that the company failed to redact or destroy documents containing customer information before discarding them.
“Hazardous waste and documents containing confidential customer information must be disposed of properly to prevent harm to the environment and consumers,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement.
The Environmental Protection Unit, part of the district attorney’s office, has prosecuted several civil cases involving hazardous waste in the automotive industry, including a $4 million settlement with Firestone Complete Auto Care in 2022.
The office began unannounced inspections of Del Grande’s waste containers in 2021, uncovering hazardous waste and customer records, it said, at sites in Alameda, Solano, Contra Costa and Monterey counties. While the amount of hazardous waste and customer records varied between inspections, each turned up at least one item of hazardous waste and one customer record containing confidential information, said Christopher Judge, an assistant district attorney in the Environmental Protection Unit.
“These audits take some time to complete, [and] we wanted to find out if it was a systemic problem,” Judge told Automotive News.
Inspections took place in several counties in coordination with different district attorneys’ offices.
The judge said negotiating a resolution with Del Grande before filing the case took time because multiple offices worked to coordinate the filing of the complaint and settlement.
A judge on July 29 ordered Del Grande to pay $215,000 in civil penalties. The group must also pay about $50,000 to cover the costs of the investigation and $25,000 to support training for California regulators. The company is cooperating with prosecutors. It has been ordered to designate an employee to manage and oversee hazardous waste management and to begin employee training programs, according to a Santa Clara County news release.
Del Grande declined to comment.
There will be no further action by the district attorney’s office until the dealership group complies with the terms of the agreement.
Del Grande ranks 69th on Automotive News’ list of the 150 largest U.S. dealership groups, with retail sales of 15,967 new vehicles in 2023.