By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) – Bayer’s Monsanto unit on Monday said it would pay at least $133 million to settle Michigan and Rhode Island’s claims that the company contaminated the states’ natural resources with toxic chemicals that are known to have dangerous health effects.
Bayer is paying Michigan at least $108 million and Rhode Island at least $25 million to address the costs of cleaning up chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls, the latest in a series of settlements with other U.S. states. Bayer has now reached settlements with a dozen U.S. states over legacy PCB contamination, recently settling with Illinois and West Virginia in December.
Bayer’s Monsanto, which produced PCBs from 1935 to 1977, said the settlements will address legacy liabilities with no admission of wrongdoing. PCBs were once used widely to insulate electrical equipment, and were also used in such products as carbonless copy paper, caulking, floor finish and paint. They were outlawed by the U.S. government in 1979 after being linked to cancer and other health problems.
The settlement value could rise if Bayer is successful in a lawsuit that it filed in 2023 against six businesses that bought PCBs from Monsanto. Bayer alleges the companies have breached agreements to indemnify Monsanto for the cost of the PCB-related liabilities, and the lawsuit remains pending in Missouri federal court.
Rhode Island could receive up to an additional $50 million while Michigan could be paid up to an additional $176 million in contingency payments.
Attorneys general for Michigan and Rhode Island said Monday that the states will use the funds to address PCB contamination in water, soil and wildlife.
“This settlement directly supports our efforts to hold corporations accountable for the pollution caused by their products and ensures that we have the resources needed to remove these chemicals from our state,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Bayer acquired Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018. Since then, the company has battled lawsuits over PCBs, as well as thousands of lawsuits claiming that its weedkiller Roundup causes cancer, which it denies.
The company said in a statement that Monsanto conducted and participated in studies on PCB safety, and provided appropriate warnings to its customers “based on state-of-the-science at the time.”
The company has faced lawsuits from municipalities and states over environmental impacts of PCBs; from schools and building owners over property damage; and from individuals claiming PCB exposure caused their illnesses. It has settled some of the litigation, but other cases have resulted in significant jury verdicts.
(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Aurora Ellis)
