(The Center Square) – California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the Alameda County and San Mateo County district attorneys have reached a $3.5 million settlement with Frontier California – an internet provider and installation company that services areas all over California.
The complaint against Frontier states that the organization failed to properly handle hazardous waste. When installing broadband internet or providing computer technical support services at homes or businesses, Frontier employees had access to hazardous materials and were required to properly store and dispose of it which, according to 12 inspections conducted from 2011 to 2013, they did not do.
“During those inspections at ten Frontier facilities (then owned and operated by Verizon California, Inc.), more than 300 potentially hazardous items were recovered in regular trash dumpsters,” reads a press release from the attorney general’s office. “These items included batteries, remote controls, splitters, aerosol cans, and devices containing circuit boards. The unlawful disposals are alleged to violate the Hazardous Waste Control Law (HWCL) and Unfair Competition Law.”
According to the complaint, Frontier broke numerous Hazardous Waste Control laws by disposing of hazardous waste at an unauthorized location, failing to determine if waste was hazardous or not, storing hazardous waste for a longer period of time than is permitted at a facility that does not have a hazardous waste permit, failing to properly label hazardous waste, delivering hazardous waste to an entity that is not allowed to possess it and failing to train employees on how to handle hazardous waste.
“The illegal disposal of hazardous waste puts our environment, workers and communities at risk and violates California law,” said Carlos Guzman, Interim Head of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office of Consumer, Environmental and Special Prosecutions Unit. “We are encouraged that Frontier cooperated with the district attorneys’ and Attorney General’s offices in taking decisive action to address the alleged past violations and to protect against future problems.”
This settlement resolves the allegations by requiring Frontier to pay $3.5 million. This will be broken up with $2.8 million going to civil penalties, $450,000 in attorney’s fees and costs, $250,000 for supplemental environmental projects and a minimum of $500,000 for supplemental environmental compliance measures in order to ensure that Frontier meets or even exceeds the legal requirements.
Additionally, the Attorney General’s office will receive $1.6 million with $1.4 million dedicated to civil penalties and $200,000 for attorneys’ fees and costs. Furthermore, the settlement imposed injunctive terms requiring Frontier to properly store, dispose, label and transport hazardous waste, train employees on how to manage the waste, conduct three environmental compliance audits and label and inspect roll-off containers and dumpsters prior to the waste being disposed of. Frontier must comply with these terms for at least a five year period.
“These actions are intended to prevent violations of the HWCL and reduce the risk that Frontier’s facilities improperly handle and dispose of hazardous waste in the future,” reads the press release.
“For years, Frontier’s careless and unlawful hazardous waste disposal practices jeopardized the health and environmental well-being of California communities,” reads a statement from Bonta. “Today’s settlement holds them accountable for breaking the law and implements strict measures to prevent them from putting Californians and our environment at risk in the future.”
