Advertisement
Advertisement

Chula Vista joins legal battle against Monsanto over PCB water pollution

Share

Chula Vista has joined the city of San Diego and a number of other West Coast cities in an attempt to force chemical giant Monsanto to pay tens of millions to clean up waterways polluted with a class of cancer-linked chemicals, known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

The city filed a lawsuit against the St. Louis-based corporation on Tuesday alleging it should help pay for costs associated with cleaning up PCB in its municipal stormwater system.

Federal and state regulators have tightened standards for cleaning up the cancer-linked chemicals in recent years, forcing cities to shell out millions of dollars to contain or remove the toxins.

Advertisement

The city of San Diego’s lawsuit against Monsanto was first brought in 2015 based on a novel legal strategy that the company created a public nuisance by knowingly selling and promoting PCBs despite knowing of their deleterious effects.

The company has maintained that it responsibly scaled back and then completely ceased making the chemicals as information came to light about their hazardous effects.

While such cases have historically failed in other parts of the country, a Santa Clara Superior Court Judge bucked the trend several years ago with a $1.15 billion judgment in a public nuisance case against large lead-paint manufacturers.

The paint manufacturers challenged the use of the public nuisance law, but an appellate court upheld its application, creating a precedent. Then earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, likely emboldening cities such as Chula Vista.

The law firm representing the city, Baron & Budd, has also brought similar lawsuits on behalf of a number of other municipalities, including Long Beach, San Jose, Berkeley, Oakland and Portland as well as Seattle and Spokane, Wash.

PCBs were largely designed to insulate electrical equipment but were also used in everything from highway paint to pesticides. Scientists believe the chemicals’ rapidly spreading nature has contaminated nearly every human, fish and creature on the planet to some degree.

Over the decades, PCBs have increasingly been linked to cancer, neurological damage, thyroid problems and reproductive complications. Monsanto is the only known manufacturer of PCBs in the United States.

If successful, the strategy against Monsanto could expand California’s public nuisance case law as it applies to corporate accountability where standard product liability cases wouldn’t apply.

Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com

Advertisement