The city of los Angeles has filed a law suit against Monsanto for the costs of dealing with pollution of waterways caused by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), informs Phys.org.
PCBs, a kind of persistent organic pollutants, were commercially manufactured in the U.S. from 1929 until banned in 1979 because they harm human and environmental health. They were used for countless industrial applications, including electrical equipment such as transformers and capacitors, hydraulic fluids, ink and paint.
Los Angeles city officials say Monsanto knew as early as the 1950s that PCBs were harmful to humans, ordering staff not to eat near the chemicals, but continued to manufacture and sell them. "We allege Monsanto knew decades ago that PCBs are toxic and inevitably would cause widespread contamination," said Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer.
The lawsuit includes three companies that spun off Monsanto’s businesses: Monsanto Company, bought by Bayer in 2018, as well as Solutia Inc., owned by Eastman Chemical Company, and Pharmacia LLC, owned by Pfizer. The city seeks compensation for past and future clean up costs.
According to Feuer, stormwater and wastewater systems continue to drain PCBs into Los Angeles Harbor, Santa Monica Bay, lakes and other waterways. “The city has expended millions and millions of dollars so far and is going to continue to expend millions and millions of dollars to remediate this issue,” he said.
Los Angeles thus joins other west coast cities that have sued Monsanto over legacy PCB water pollution. A number of them – including San Diego, Long Beach, Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, and Spokane – announced in 2020 they had reached a $650 million settlement with Bayer over water contamination from PCBs. The settlement was later rejected by a federal judge who requested changes be made by the parties, and is now undergoing further consideration. Bayer has also been dealing with lawsuits that claim Monsanto’s weedkiller Roundup causes cancer, which contributed to a decline in the company’s share price; investors are now demanding 2.2 billion euros from Bayer, this time in Germany, due to share value losses.
Bayer has released the following statement in response to the complaint filed by the city of Los Angeles: “We are reviewing this lawsuit and will respond to the complaint in greater detail at the appropriate time; however, we believe it is without merit. Monsanto voluntarily ceased its lawful manufacturing of PCBs more than 40 years ago, and never manufactured, used, or disposed of PCBs into Los Angeles’ waters, and therefore should not be held liable for the contamination alleged by the city. Where it has been determined that those cleanups are necessary, federal, and state authorities employ an effective system to identify dischargers and allocate clean-up responsibilities. Litigation of the sort brought by the city risks undermining these efforts.
“In June 2020, Monsanto announced a series of agreements with state and local governments that resolve cases representing most of the company’s exposure to PCB water litigation. These agreements contain no admission of wrongdoing or liability. One agreement establishes a class that includes approximately 2,500 local governments with EPA permits involving water discharges impaired by PCBs. Under this settlement, which is pending court approval before Judge Fernando M. Olguin in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the company will make a payment of $650 million, for which it has already accounted. Local governments that do not opt out of the class would be covered by the terms of this agreement. The company has also reached separate settlements with the Attorneys General of New Hampshire, New Mexico, Washington, and the District of Columbia to resolve similar PCB cases.”
For the most part, PCBs were produced in industrialized countries, but PCB contamination is a global problem. Equipment with PCBs was exported to countries across the world; moreover, once in the environment, they can travel through air, water and migratory species across international boundaries. PCBs can persist for long periods of time (more than 100 years), and everyone in the world is likely to have PCBs in his or her body. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants calls upon parties to phase out the use of PCBs in equipment by 2025 and ensure elimination by 2028. So far, the UNEP estimates that 83% of the total amount of PCBs in the world remains to be eliminated, about 15 million tonnes.
