LOS ANGELES—Agriculture conglomerate and related company have settled a lawsuit with the city of Los Angeles for $35 million over the sale of manmade chemicals found in local waterways, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced on Friday.
The city attorney’s office had sued Monsanto Company in 2022, alleging that despite knowing the dangers of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the company continued selling them while claiming they were safe.
The settlement will cover costs related to abatement and monitoring of contaminated waterways and reimburse the city for costs already incurred.
City Attorney Feldstein Soto said, “With this settlement, Monsanto is being held accountable for the damage its dangerous PCBs have inflicted upon Angelenos for decades. This is a significant step towards cleaner, safer waterways and justice for our city’s residents.”
The lawsuit was originally filed against three companies spun off by Monsanto in the 1990s—Monsanto Company (now owned by Bayer), Solutia Inc. (now owned by Eastman Chemical Company), and Pharmacia LLC (now owned by Pfizer, who is no longer liable in the case).
In a statement, Monsanto mentioned that PCBs are a legacy product they stopped producing in 1977 and that the settlement does not imply any admission of liability or wrongdoing on their part.
According to Monsanto, they never manufactured or disposed of PCBs in the Los Angeles area, discontinued PCB production almost five decades ago, conducted numerous safety studies, and provided appropriate warnings to customers based on scientific knowledge at the time.
The lawsuit alleges that Monsanto polluted the city’s waterways with PCBs, which were used in various products until they were banned by the EPA in 1979. The EPA banned PCBs due to their serious health effects and their persistence in the environment.
The $35 million settlement will be paid as compensatory restitution and remediation for the alleged harms caused by PCB exposure in the city.
