Pollution of key Los Angeles waterways such as Santa Monica Bay, the Port of Los Angeles and Echo Park Lake from the spread of toxic chemicals is at the center of a $35 million settlement between the Los Angeles City Council and agricultural giant Monsanto and two smaller companies.
The City Council on Tuesday announced the payment by the companies to settle a lawsuit filed in 2022 over damages caused by long-banned chemicals called PCBs, which have been linked to health problems including cancer.
The City Council approved the agreement at a meeting Tuesday afternoon, by a vote of 13-0 after a closed-door session. Council members Imelda Padilla and Nithya Raman were absent.
A call to the office of City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto was not immediately returned, nor was a call to Monsanto's office.
In March 2022, then-city attorney Mike Feuer sued Monsanto, which was acquired by German corporation Bayer in 2018, and smaller chemical companies Solutia Inc. and Pharmacia.
The lawsuit sought compensation for the cost of past cleanups and for the future removal of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). These chemicals polluted and continue to pollute many waterways in Los Angeles, including Dominguez Canal, Ballona Creek, Marina del Rey and Lake Machado.
“The city has spent millions and millions of dollars so far and will continue to spend millions and millions of dollars to remedy this problem,” Feuer said at the time.
PCBs are man-made organic chemicals that have no known taste or odor and range in consistency from oils to waxes, depending on the Environmental Protection Agency.
They had a number of commercial uses, including in transformers and capacitors, oil used in engines and hydraulic systems, cable insulation, oil-based paint, caulking, and plastics.
PCBs were produced and used in the country from about 1929 until they were banned in 1979, according to the EPA.
From the 1930s until 1977, Monsanto was the sole producer of PCBs in the United States, according to National Library of Medicine.
Exposure to PCBs increases a person's chances of developing cancer, while decreasing the effectiveness of the immune system and damaging reproductive organs and the nervous system, according to the EPA.
The suit alleged that Monsanto knew “its commercial PCB formulations were highly toxic and would inevitably produce precisely the contamination and human health risks that have occurred.” Instead of informing public officials, the company “misled the public, regulators, and its own customers about these key facts.”
The suit alleged that as early as 1937, Monsanto internally acknowledged that PCBs produced “systemic toxic effects after prolonged exposure.”
Many of Los Angeles' waterways had been affected by PCB contamination, the lawsuit says.
The city has said it continues to bear the cost and responsibility for cleaning up these sites along with monitoring and analyzing the samples.
According to the lawsuit, people are exposed to PCBs by eating contaminated food, breathing contaminated air, or drinking or swimming in contaminated water. Fish caught in contaminated waters and consumed are also a route of exposure to PCBs.
The agreement avoids a court case, which posed some risk to the city.
In July, Seattle asked Monsanto for a $160 million settlement over PCBs in the city's sewer system and rivers.
In May, however, a Washington state appeals court overturned a $185 million verdict against Monsanto in a lawsuit filed by three teachers who claimed they suffered brain damage from PCB leaks.
