Mrs. Gooch’s Natural Food Markets, Inc., dba Whole Foods Market, Settlement
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Mrs. Gooch's Natural Food Markets, Inc., dba Whole Foods Market, Settles For $2,000
In February 2022, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Mrs. Gooch’s Natural Food Markets, Inc. dba Whole Foods Market (Mrs. Gooch’s), with its principal location in Glendale, California, reached a settlement agreement in the amount of $2,000 for the company’s violation of CARB’s air quality regulations.
Mrs. Gooch’s owns and operates a Whole Foods Market store that operates a medium-sized refrigeration system with a full charge greater than 200 pounds of a high global warming potential refrigerant. The company is subject to CARB’s Regulation for the Management of High Global Warming Potential Refrigerants for Stationary Sources (RMP Regulation). On March 24, 2021, Mrs. Gooch’s voluntarily disclosed that this store failed to report one refrigerant system in 2018 and 2019, resulting in two units of violations, as specified in Cal. Code Regs., tit. 17, § 95380, et seq.
Mrs. Gooch’s came into compliance quickly, put into place policies and procedures to prevent similar issues in the future, and fully cooperated with the investigation.
The full settlement amount will be deposited into CARB’s Air Pollution Control Fund, which provides funding for projects and research to improve California's air quality.