CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / RIVERSIDE COUNTY
California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown announced Monday that he has filed suit against a national gas station chain for sloppy underground fuel storage that has endangered groundwater in the Inland Empire.
“TravelCenters of America has knowingly and repeatedly disregarded California’s underground fuel storage laws for years,” Brown said of his decision to join a 9-month-old legal action by Riverside County authorities over the gas chain’s alleged negligence.
“This has put the Inland Empire’s scarce groundwater supplies at serious risk of contamination.”
Brown’s action, filed last week, also seeks fines of $25,000 per day for each violation of California’s Health and Safety Code, which could amount to millions in penalties, Brown noted. A call to TravelCenters’ corporate offices in Westlake, Ohio, was not immediately returned.
The company that operates 234 stations in the United States and Canada has rejected California officials’ criticism, “offering more than a dozen legal theories as to why the law does not apply,” Brown alleged.
Riverside County Department of Environmental Health inspections at TravelCenters throughout the county have revealed “numerous, long-standing violations” of California law that the company has failed to correct despite repeated warnings, the attorney general said.
-- Carol J. Williams
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