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The city of Seattle is suing the Monsanto Company to make it pay to clean up cancer-causing chemical compounds from the city’s drainage system and the Duwamish River.
Monsanto produced PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in the U.S. from 1935 to 1977, and knowingly continued to profit from their sale for years even as it knew the chemicals were polluting the environment, causing harm to people and wildlife, said Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes.
“When the profit motive overtakes concern for the environment, this is the kind of disaster that happens,” Holmes said Tuesday. “I’m proud to hold Monsanto accountable.”
Seattle is the sixth major city in the West to seek cleanup damages from the company, joining San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, San Diego and Spokane, which Holmes said gave him the idea to file the federal lawsuit.
The amount of damages isn’t specified and would be determined in the course of the lawsuit, said Laura Wishik, section director for Environmental Protection in the Seattle City Attorney’s Office.
Targeted is PCB contamination in 20,000 acres that drain to the Lower Duwamish, a federal Superfund site. Also at issue are areas that drain to the East Waterway, adjacent to Harbor Island, a separate Superfund site.
City inspections have detected PCBs in 82 percent of samples of sediment in drainage pipes and in 73 percent of samples in catch basins in street rights of way in Lower Duwamish drainage basins.
Seattle is working under a consent degree issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology to build a treatment plant designed to remove PCBs from stormwater at an estimated cost of nearly $27 million. But that is just the beginning of costs to clean up the ubiquitous, persistent pollution caused by widespread use of PCBs.
Found globally in bays, oceans, rivers, streams, oil and air, the chemicals harm fish, birds and other animals, and damage human immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems. They are known to cause cancer and other health concerns, noted Ray Hoffman, director of Seattle Public Utilities, which runs the city’s drainage and water-supply system.
Man swims 55 miles of Duwamish River, finds it’s ‘still alive’ (September 2015)
Mammoth $342 million cleanup ahead for fouled Duwamish River (December 2014)
Decades of toxic waste dredged from the Duwamish (March 2014)
Pacific NW Magazine: Reclaiming the Duwamish River (April 2011)
Drinking water for the city of Seattle comes from the high Cascade mountains, and is clean and healthful to drink. It is not a subject of the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, Monsanto knew for decades that PCBs were toxic and widely contaminating the environment. “Monsanto concealed these facts and continued producing PCBs,” the complaint states.
Wishik said it could be years before Seattle sees a check from the company. But going after the global agricultural chemical behemoth, based in St. Louis, Mo., to pay its share of cleanup costs in the Duwamish is the right thing to do, she said. Those costs total more $342 million in the Lower Duwamish, in addition to the treatment plant.
“PCBs are very, very horrible,” Wishik said. “Monsanto created them, and manufactured them. We wouldn’t be dealing with this if they did not manufacture them, and keep manufacturing them.
“Obviously corporations are out to make money,” Wishik said. “But they had internal committees set up to deal with the problem that these chemicals are toxic, and they are getting into the environment, how should they deal with that in ways that make us more money.”
Named as plaintiffs in the suit are Monsanto Company, Solutia Inc. and Parmacia Corp. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle.
The company on Tuesday denied responsibility for the pollution.
“We are reviewing the lawsuit and its allegations. However Monsanto is not responsible for the costs alleged in this matter,” wrote Charla Lord for Monsanto Company in an email in response to questions from The Seattle Times. “PCBs sold at the time were a lawful and useful product that was then incorporated by third parties into other useful products. If improper disposal or other improper uses allowed for necessary clean up costs, then these other third parties would bear responsibility for these costs.”
On its website, the company says it voluntarily stopped manufacturing the chemicals in 1977. The company distances itself from its PCB manufacturing past, stating that in 2002, following a series of mergers and reorganizations, Monsanto became an independent publicly held agricultural company.
The current Monsanto Company — also the makers of Agent Orange and Aspartame — manages “several legacy liabilities, which in most cases have nothing to do with the company’s current business,” the company states on its website. “Regardless, we take our commitments seriously and strive to resolve these liabilities responsibly.”
PCBs were widely used around the world for decades primarily to insulate and cool electrical equipment and prevent electrical fires. The chemicals were required by government building codes for years because of their effective fire-resistance properties, Monsanto notes on its website. That same resistance is what makes the chemicals so persistent in the environment.
Also used in paint, caulking, plasticizers, sealants, inks, and lubricants, PCBs leach, leak, off-gas, and escape their intended applications, contaminating runoff during naturally occurring storms and rain, according to the complaint.
Used in everything from hydraulic systems to lighting and cable insulation, PCBs were sold to manufacturers such as General Electric and Westinghouse that incorporated the chemicals into their products. Bearing the trade name Aroclor, Monsanto, founded in 1901, was the principal manufacturer of the chemical in the U.S. from 1935 until 1977.
The EPA banned manufacture and distribution of PCBs for nearly all uses in 1979.
