Monsanto reaches largest single-city settlement with Seattle

$160 million will help mitigate costs associated with the care and cleanup of the Lower Duwamish River.

Krissa Welshans

July 29, 2024

3 Min Read
 gavel lawsuit settlement money
Getty Images/ iStock

The city of Seattle will receive the largest single-city settlement of $160 million from Monsanto for allegedly polluting the Lower Duwamish River for years. The lawsuit, which began in 2016, was scheduled for a September trial. In June, City Attorney Davison participated in a mediation that concluded with an unprecedented settlement amount. The settlement will result in the dismissal of the city’s pending case and contains no admission of liability or wrongdoing by the Company.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Monsanto will pay $35 million for PCB remediation, with the balance of $125 million going to reimburse the city for several unique claims in this case. Monsanto said the case is an outlier as no other pending municipal opt-out PCB case against Monsanto involves similar circumstances. 

“Our office has been able to deliver a great result for the City of Seattle and defend our beloved Duwamish waterway,” said Davison. “We all play a role in protecting our environment, and I am glad that Monsanto will contribute to this important environmental cleanup.”

She continued: “Bringing $160 million to the city of Seattle is a critical highlight for me in serving as city attorney. I am grateful to my civil team for their years of work on this issue, including Assistant City Attorney Laura Wishik and the attorneys and staff at Keller Rohrback. I’m also very grateful to Seattle Public Utilities.”

Davison alleged that Monsanto was aware for decades of the toxic danger PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) posed to humans, yet still continued to promote their use in a wide range of products. Although Monsanto ceased manufacturing PCBs in 1977, the chemicals continued to exist in exterior paint and caulking remaining on buildings, she noted. As a result, stormwater flowing into the Lower Duwamish River has been continually contaminated with PCBs.

Monsanto said that it did not manufacture PCBs in the Seattle area, discontinued its own legal production of PCBs nearly five decades ago, conducted hundreds of studies on PCB safety, provided appropriate warnings to its customers based on the state-of-the science at the time, and has committed to participation in agency processes where it has been determined to be a potentially responsible party.

Davison said the money will help care for the Lower Duwamish and mitigate the cost of pollution control to find and remove PCBs. “These funds will allow Seattle Public Utilities to take further steps to protect the Duwamish, which could include expanding SPU’s source control program to identify and address increasingly elusive sources of pollution, including buildings with PCBs in paint or caulk, to prevent further contamination of stormwater, in addition to current plans to remediate the waterway by dredging and removing contaminated sediments and capping areas with clean material.”

Monsanto noted that it has previously reached a nationwide class action settlement with 2500 local government bodies. The vast majority of the local governments that opted out of that nationwide class action settlement are included in nine pending municipal opt-out cases. The pending cases are largely grouped around a limited number of waterways and have unique factual and legal circumstances, Monsanto explained.

“Monsanto remains committed to defending cases at trial and will only consider settlements when it is in the company’s interest to do so,” the company stated.

About the Author

Krissa Welshans

Krissa Welshans grew up on a crop farm and cow-calf operation in Marlette, Michigan. Welshans earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Michigan State University and master’s degree in public policy from New England College. She and her husband Brock run a show cattle operation in Henrietta, Texas, where they reside with their sons, Wynn and Mack.

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