Safeway dinged for clean-air violations

Pleasanton-based supermarket chain Safeway Inc. was recently hit with a $600,000 fine for not fixing greenhouse-gas leaks from the refrigeration equipment in its 659 U.S. stores.

On Sept. 4, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice announced the settlement as “the largest ozone-protection case ever reached under the [federal] Clean Air Act,” according to CBS News, and noted that the grocery giant also failed to keep acceptable maintenance records.

In addition to paying a fine for the leakage of climate-change-causing gas HCFC-22, Safeway will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from the refrigeration equipment in all of its stores nationwide by 2015.