Gristede’s Foods to Pay $13.9 Million Over Refrigerant Leaks

Gristede’s Foods NY Inc. will have to pay roughly $13.5 million to repair its leaking commercial refrigeration equipment and another $400,000 to the US government for the supermarket’s environmental harm, the US Department of Justice announced.

Gristede’s violated the Clean Air Act and the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Recycling and Emission Reduction Rule through its negligently leaked refrigerant from 2019 to 2021, according to a proposed consent decree on Monday. The New York-based supermarket chain emitted more than 40,000 pounds of regulated climate-impacting refrigerants, which is equivalent to driving a gasoline-powered car an extra 140 million miles, the DOJ said ...