Sean Gallup/Getty Images News
Bayer (OTCPK:BAYRY) (OTCPK:BAYZF) has agreed to pay $160 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the city of Seattle, Washington, which accused the company’s Monsanto unit of polluting the local Duwamish River with banned chemicals in what the city says is the largest such incident since 1990. One settlement in an eight-year legal battle, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
The city has accused Monsanto of creating a public nuisance by manufacturing and marketing polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, which contaminate the city’s stormwater system and pollute the river.
Although Monsanto stopped making PCBs in 1977, the chemicals continued to be found in paints, fillers and sealants in buildings, the lawsuit says, and as a result, stormwater flowing into the Duwamish River was continually contaminated with PCBs.
Bayer (OTCPK:BAYRY) (OTCPK:BAYZF), which did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, said in its court filings that the city has sought more than $700 million in damages related to the contamination.
The company said $35 million of the $160 million settlement will go to address the PCB problem, with the remaining $125 million going to pay for cleanup, legal and other costs to the city.