Tesla and the 25 California counties that continued the automaker for mishandling hazardous waste at its facilities across the state have already reached an agreement just days after the lawsuit was filed. The court ordered the automaker to pay $1.5 million as part of the settlement, which also includes hiring a third party to conduct annual waste audits of its trash bins for five years. These auditors will closely examine the company's trash cans to check for the presence of hazardous materials.
The counties that sued Tesla, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, accused the company of dumping mislabeled materials at transfer centers and landfills that were “not authorized to accept hazardous waste.” According to the complaint filed in San Joaquin County, Tesla was illegally disposing of the waste it generated while manufacturing and maintaining its vehicles.
Undercover investigators from the environmental division of the San Francisco District Attorney's Office were the first to find evidence of Tesla's illegal activities in 2018. They found trash bins at the company's service centers containing materials such such as aerosols, antifreeze, lubricating oils, brake cleaners. , lead-acid batteries, aerosols, antifreeze, solvent waste, electronic waste and paint waste when they weren't supposed to. Investigators from prosecutors' offices in other California counties conducted their own investigations and uncovered similar illegal transfers. Alameda Country authorities, for example, investigating operations at its Fremont plant, discovered illegal disposal of copper-containing waste and debris contaminated with primers.
Tesla reached a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency over its handling of hazardous materials in 2019 and had to agree to properly manage waste at its Fremont factory in addition to paying a $31,000 fine. The automaker had also taken steps to check its trash bins for hazardous waste before dumping it in the landfill after being informed of the problem. But as District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said, “today's settlement against (the company) serves to provide a cleaner environment for citizens across the state by preventing contamination of (their) valuable resources natural resources when hazardous wastes are mismanaged and illegally disposed of. By having a third party regularly monitor whether Tesla continues to comply with the agreement, authorities can ensure that the company is not illegally dumping harmful materials across the state in the coming years.