Monsanto, once the largest makers of a now-banned class of chemicals, agreed to pay the state $120 million and potentially more, under a settlement announced by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Monday.
Raoul sued Monsanto in 2022 alleging that company officials long knew that widely used polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were dangerous to people and the environment even as they denied it.
In use for about half a century, PCBs were banned in 1979 because of their high toxicity. The chemicals, believed to be carcinogens and the cause of multiple other illnesses, don’t break down easily in the environment.
“I’m pleased that this settlement will hold Monsanto accountable for producing and disposing of a dangerous toxic chemical that continues to impact Illinois’ natural resources,” Raoul said in a statement.
Chicago, Evanston and eight other suburbs will benefit from $80 million for cleanup and the state will collect another $40 million, initially, Raoul said.
The other suburbs involved in the settlement are Lake Forest, North Chicago, Zion, Beach Park, Glencoe, Lake Bluff, Winnetka and Winthrop Harbor.
The agreement allows for Monsanto, which is now a division of Germany-based Bayer, to pay more than twice the settlement amount to the state. But that will depend on a separate lawsuit Monsanto has brought against its largest customers for PCBs.
Monsanto produced PCBs in the downstate community of Sauget, which is near St. Louis. The chemicals were used in a range of products, including lubricants for electrical equipment.
According to Raoul, the company sold almost 50 million pounds of PCB mixtures in Illinois.
Monsanto discharged large amounts of hazardous waste from its Sauget plant into sewers that contaminated the nearby Mississippi River, Raoul said.
As part of the agreement, Monsanto admits no wrongdoing.
“During the time of manufacture, Monsanto conducted hundreds of studies on PCB safety, provided appropriate warnings to its sophisticated industrial customers based on state-of-the science at the time and cooperated with the U.S. government’s” research of the chemicals, the company said in a statement Monday.