Marin County and nine Marin cities and towns are suing Monsanto and two other companies for alleged damages caused by their sale of products containing PCBs.
“PCBs have left a long toxic legacy,” Marin County Counsel Brian Washington said of polychlorinated biphenyls, a group of manmade chemicals once used in a range of commercial, household and industrial applications.
“The companies responsible need to contribute to the solution so that the taxpayers do not have to carry the entire burden,” Washington said.
The suit was filed in Marin County Superior Court on Sept. 8. Joining Marin County as complainants in the suit were the cities of Belvedere, Mill Valley, Novato, San Rafael and Sausalito and the towns of Corte Madera, Ross, San Anselmo, and Tiburon.
The suit seeks both compensatory and punitive damages of an unspecified amount. It also asks the court to require Monsanto to establish a fund to cover all reasonable future costs for preventing PCBs from being discharged into the bay.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, PCBs have been shown to cause cancer in animals “as well as a number of serious non-cancer health effects in animals, including: effects on the immune system, reproductive system, nervous system, endocrine system and other health effects. Studies in humans support evidence for potential carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects of PCBs.”
The International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined that PCBs are definite carcinogens in humans.
Production of PCBs was prohibited in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1979.
Prior to that, however, the suit asserts, “Monsanto promoted, marketed, distributed, and sold PCBs and/or products containing PCBs in and/or near the county and the municipalities.”
The suit also alleges that while doing so Monsanto knew that PCBs were dangerous to human health, animal health and the environment.
The suit states, “Even as Monsanto internally acknowledged the pervasive risks posed by its large-scale manufacture, distribution and sale of PCBs, Monsanto minimized or denied those risks in its public statements.”
The suit asserts that Monsanto provided false and/or misleading information to federal, state and local government authorities that were investigating PCB risks.
Also named as defendants in the case are Solutia Inc. and Pharmacia, two companies that were spun off from the original Monsanto. Monsanto retained its agricultural business while Solutia took on the chemical business and Pharmacia assumed the pharmaceutical business. Bayer AG acquired Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018.
Pfizer purchased Pharmacia for $60 million in 2002. A spokesperson for Pfizer wrote in an email that Monsanto “agreed to indemnify Pharmacia for, any liabilities related to Pharmacia’s former agricultural business.”
Eastman Chemical Co., which acquired Solutia in a $4.7 billion transaction, did not respond to a request for comment.
Regarding the suit, Bayer spokeswoman Susan Luke said, “Monsanto believes the case is meritless as the company voluntarily ceased its lawful manufacturing of PCBs more than 40 years ago, and never manufactured, used or disposed PCBs in the state.”
“Moreover,” Luke wrote, “PCBs were previously required by governments in the state to mitigate certain fire and explosion risks. The class settlement reached by Monsanto with over 2,500 local governments has been preliminarily approved and it is not uncommon to receive a small number of opt-outs to these agreements — like these communities — especially when there is a large class.”
There are about 2,500 local governments in the class settlement including Baltimore, Long Beach, Berkeley, Chula Vista, Oakland, Portland, San Diego, San Jose, and Spokane. Monsanto has agreed to pay $650 million, including attorney fees and expenses, to settle the suit.
Washington said that Marin County and the other participating jurisdictions opted out of the proposed national class-action settlement because it failed to sufficiently cover the anticipated costs to comply with regulations and prevent further damage.
According to the suit, under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System authorized by the Clean Water Act, the California State Water Resources Control Board will soon require the county and the municipalities to sharply limit PCB discharges.
Th suits says this will require the installation and ongoing maintenance of “green infrastructure” to capture PCBs in runoff, more frequent street sweeping, and other measures.
The suit states that the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board has identified Richardson Bay as a “hot spot” for PCB contamination. PCB levels in the bay are so high that the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has advised some people not to eat certain types of fish caught in it.
The legal staff of Marin County and the municipalities are being supported by Sher Edling, a San Francisco-based law firm that specializes in representing businesses, cities and public agencies in high-value environmental cases. Sher Edling is also advising San Mateo and nine of its cities and towns, which filed a similar suit against Monsanto in April.
“Monsanto is pursuing removal to federal court in the San Mateo matter, and they have yet to respond in court in Marin,” said John Lamson, a spokesman for Sher Edling.
Lamson added, “Monsanto has a well-documented history of misconduct relating to PCBs, and they have been held accountable for that misconduct in lawsuits across the country. In similar cases, plaintiffs have been successful in front of juries and on motions for summary judgment, been awarded punitive damages, and secured settlements from Monsanto relating to that misconduct.”
In March, Bayer reached an $80 million settlement with Ohio over claims that Monsanto’s production of PCBs had polluted the environment in that state.
Since purchasing Monsanto, Bayer has also had to contend with lawsuits from plaintiffs who assert that Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer caused them to develop cancer. In 2020, Bayer agreed to pay more than $10 billion to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits filed over the weed killer, which contains glyphosate as its active ingredient.
Sher Edling is also representing Marin and San Mateo in its ongoing suit against 37 oil, gas and coal companies, asserting the companies knew their fossil fuel products would cause sea level rise and coastal flooding but failed to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
Source: www.mercurynews.com