THE EMERGING ELECTRONIC WASTE RISKS: AT&T to pay California $52 million in hazardous waste disposal settlement FOR ILLEGALLY DISPOSING ELECTRONIC WASTE
We reported in a recent blog the emerging health, safety and
environmental risks posed by the handling and disposal of electronic
waste. Here is that blog:
Potential
Occupational Overexposure to Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Mercury and Noise at
Electronic Scrap Recycling Facilities – EMERGING GLOBAL THREATS FROM E-WASTE
In a recent development, AT&T Inc will pay $52 million in
civil penalties and environmental compliance as part of a settlement with California
over illegal dumping of electronic hazardous waste but won’t be required to
clean up the resulting contamination, state officials said on Thursday.
State officials said it marked the first enforcement action in
California against a telecommunications company for mishandling of electronic
waste. The settlement must still be approved by the Alameda County Superior Court,
where it was filed.
Investigators cited AT&T for illegally disposing of
hazardous wastes and other materials at more than 235 of its warehouses and
dispatch centers across the state over a nine-year period.
Inspections of trash dumpsters at those facilities by county
prosecutors and state regulators found the company was routinely sending hazardous
materials to local landfills not permitted to receive such contaminants.
The wastes in question consisted primarily of discarded
electronic equipment, batteries and aerosol cans, as well as “certain liquids
and gels” used by AT&T service technicians, the state said in a statement.
“This settlement holds AT&T accountable for unlawfully
dumping electronic waste,” state Attorney General Kamala Harris said.
AT&T admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement, nor
is it compelled to remove any of the waste it was found to have dumped
illegally, said David Beltran, a spokesman for Harris.
But the judgment also expressly does not release AT&T from
any liability for contamination in the event the Dallas-based company is named
in a lawsuit seeking damages, Beltran said.
AT&T officials were not immediately available for comment.
Verizon Communications Inc has acknowledged that it was the
subject of a similar investigation by California earlier this year.
Under the agreement with AT&T, the company will pay $23.8
million in civil penalties and other costs and spend $28 million more over the
next five years to carry out “enhanced environmental compliance measures”
required by the settlement, the state said.
Consumer advocate Liza Tucker from the nonprofit Santa
Monica-based group Consumer Watchdog criticized the settlement as falling short
by not requiring AT&T to undertake a costly cleanup necessary to ensure public
health and deter similar dumping by others.
“They’re being fined what amounts to chump change for a company
like AT&T, and the public is not going to be protected in the end because
wherever they’ve illegally disposed of that waste, it’s going to stay there,”
she said.
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