In the next five years, authorities will also be closely monitoring the automaker’s garbage.
A settlement has already been reached between Tesla and the 25 counties in California that filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer for improperly treating hazardous waste at its plants located throughout the state. The agreement was reached just a few days after the lawsuit was made. As part of the settlement, the court has ordered the automobile manufacturer to pay $1.5 million. Additionally, the court has mandated that the automaker hire a third party to carry out waste audits of its trash containers on an annual basis for a period of five years. In order to determine whether or not the company’s trash cans contain any potentially harmful substances, these auditors will examine them in great detail.
The counties that filed a lawsuit against Tesla, which include Los Angeles and San Francisco, accused the corporation of dumping materials that were wrongly labeled at transfer sites and landfills that were “not permitted to accept hazardous waste.” The lawsuit that was lodged in San Joaquin County stated that Tesla was breaking the law by improperly disposing of the waste that it produced while manufacturing and maintaining its automobiles.
In the year 2018, undercover agents working for the environmental section of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office were the first to discover evidence of criminal acts carried out by Tesla. It was discovered that the company’s service centers contained garbage containers that contained goods that were not authorized to be there. These products included aerosols, antifreeze, lubricating oils, brake cleaners, lead acid batteries, aerosols, antifreeze, waste solvents, electronic waste, and waste paint. The District Attorney’s offices of other counties in California launched their own investigations and discovered improper disposals that were comparable to those found in the previous investigation. Authorities from the county of Alameda, for example, who investigated the activities of the Fremont business found that waste containing copper and primer-contaminated debris had been illegally disposed of.
In 2019, Tesla reached a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its management of hazardous chemicals. As part of the agreement, the company was required to agree to properly manage waste at its Fremont plant and pay a fine of $31,000. After being made aware of the problem, the automobile manufacturer had also taken measures to ensure that its garbage cans were inspected for the presence of hazardous waste before transporting them to the landfill. However, as District Attorney Brooke Jenkins pointed out, “today’s settlement against [the company]serves to provide a cleaner environment for citizens throughout the state by preventing the contamination of [their]precious natural resources when hazardous waste is mismanaged and unlawfully disposed.” Authorities will be able to ensure that Tesla does not engage in the illegal disposal of hazardous chemicals around the state over the next few years if they have a third party check on Tesla on a regular basis to determine whether or not the corporation is continuing to comply with the agreement.