Wal-Mart pleads guilty to Neosho environmental violation

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. yesterday pleaded guilty to violating federal law by sending damaged household products to a Neosho recycling facility that improperly handled the materials.

In a Kansas City court in the Western District of Missouri, the Bentonville, Ark.-based megaretailer admitted it violated the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

According to its plea agreement, starting in 2006, Wal-Mart shipped certain damaged household products, including solid and liquid pesticides, from its six return centers to Neosho-based Greenleaf LLC. While the products were sent to the recyling facility for reuse and resale, Wal-Mart employees failed to adequately provide oversight on the pesticides, leading to the products being mixed and offered for sale to cusomers without the required registration, ingredients or use information.

According to the release, between July 2006 and February 2008, Wal-Mart sent more than 2 million pounds of pesticides and other household products to Greenleaf, which also was convicted of a FIRFRA violation in November 2008 and paid a criminal penalty of $200,000 in 2009.

As part of yesterday's plea agreement in Missouri, Wal-Mart agreed to pay a criminal fine of $11 million, as well as $3 million to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to fund the agency's hazardous waste program and further inspections and education on pesticide regulation.

"This tough financial penalty holds Wal-Mart accountable for its reckless and illegal business practices that threatened both the public and the environment,” said Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, in the release.

Wal-Mart also pleaded guilty yesterday to six counts of violating the Clean Water Act in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Coupled with previous actions brought by the states of California and Missouri, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Wal-Mart is required to pay more than $110 million for its violations of federal and state environmental laws, the release said.