California dealership to pay $290,000 to settle environmental violations complaint

Del Grande Dealer Group in California's Bay Area 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 district attorney's office in local Superior Court in June, alleged the dealership improperly disposed of brake parts cleaner, automotive fluids and circuit board parts.

Del Grande Dealer Group has 18 locations across Northern California.

The settlement also involved allegations the company failed to redact or shred paperwork containing customer information before disposing of it.

"Hazardous waste and documents containing confidential customer information must be disposed of properly to avoid 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 trash containers in 2021, discovering hazardous waste and customer records, it said, at locations in Alameda, Solano, Contra Costa and Monterey counties. Although the amount of hazardous waste and customer records varied between inspections, each revealed at least one item of hazardous waste and one customer record containing confidential information, said Christopher Judge, deputy district attorney with the Environmental Protection Unit.

"These audits take some time to do, [and] we wanted to find out if it was a systemic problem," Judge told Automotive News.

The inspections occurred across multiple counties in coordination with different district attorney's offices.

Judge said negotiating a resolution with Del Grande before filing the case took time because the multiple offices worked to coordinate the filing of both the complaint and the settlement.

A judge ordered Del Grande on July 29 to pay $215,000 in civil penalties. The group also must pay about $50,000 to cover investigation costs and $25,000 to support training for California regulators. The company is cooperating with prosecutors. It was instructed 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 as long as the dealership group meets the terms of the settlement.

Del Grande ranks No. 69 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., with retail sales of 15,967 new vehicles in 2023.