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Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc., agreed to a nearly $1.5 million settlement that was approved last week to resolve allegations that stores under the company’s brands up and down California violated state laws on hazardous waste disposal, according to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
The judgment in the civil enforcement lawsuit originating in Ventura County Superior Court includes 207 store locations under the New Jersey-based company’s namesake brand and its subsidiaries such as Cost Plus World Market. Two stores in the Tri-Valley were cited in the settlement.
The enforcement case, which originated after two refuse fires tied to an Oxnard store, centered on the improper handling, transportation and disposal of batteries, electronic devices, ignitable liquids, aerosol products, cleaning agents and other flammable, reactive, toxic and corrosive materials that were not supposed to be sent to local landfills, according to prosecutors.
“When businesses, large or small, illegally dispose of hazardous waste, not only do they violate the law, but they put the environment at risk,” Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said in a statement. “We will not stand idly by while corporations disregard the safety and well-being of the environment.”
“The protection of our environment and public health is always a top priority. This settlement acts as a deterrent to other companies as non-compliant companies will be held accountable for violating our environmental laws,” Contra Costa County DA Diana Becton, whose office was also involved in the civil prosecution, added in a separate statement.
Bed Bath & Beyond had not yet responded to a request for comment. Prosecutors said the company cooperated with the investigation and took corrective action once notified of violations.
The case involved more than 30 counties across California at stores owned by the company, including Bed Bath & Beyond, Cost Plus, buybuy BABY, Harmon, Harmon Face Values, World Market and Cost Plus World Market, according to prosecutors.
The investigation unfolded in the wake of a fire at Oxnard’s Del Norte Transfer Facility on Christmas Eve 2015, igniting in a load of store waste from the trash compactor from the Bed Bath and Beyond store in Oxnard, prosecutors said.
The bagged store waste reportedly burst into flames when a city employee used a front-end loader to spread the freshly dumped trash pile. The subsequent investigation revealed numerous items of waste that isn’t allowed to be dumped for landfills, including several electronic items and hazardous waste such as lithium batteries and a small can of lighter fluid, prosecutors said.
Four months later, a fire broke out in the Oxnard store’s trash compactor itself, and again investigators found improperly dumped waste.
After the Ventura County fires, inspectors from Alameda County DA’s environmental units — along with other similar divisions statewide — launched a series of investigations that included undercover inspections, according to O’Malley.
“These inspections, and other investigation, revealed that Bed Bath & Beyond had been sending regulated hazardous wastes from stores to local landfills throughout California,” O’Malley’s office said.
“When notified of the investigation, Bed Bath and Beyond took steps to cooperate and to dedicate additional resources towards environmental compliance and improving its existing regulated-waste management program, including by performing regular self-audits of its compactors and waste bins in California,” local prosecutors added.
The settlement, filed in Ventura County Superior Court on Oct. 26, cited 207 stores statewide, including the Bed Bath & Beyond store at 4882 Dublin Blvd. in Dublin and the Cost Plus World Market at 5564 Springdale Ave. in Pleasanton. There were no stores in the San Ramon Valley, but the list did include the Cost Plus World Market in downtown Walnut Creek.
Under the final judgment, Bed Bath & Beyond is ordered to pay $1,327,500 in civil penalties and reimbursement of investigation and prosecution costs, as well as an additional $171,250 to fund supplemental environmental projects furthering environmental enforcement in California. The settlement also includes a permanent injunction prohibiting the retailer similar future violations of law, prosecutors said.
