In early December, Illinois courts announced a $120 million settlement in a lawsuit against chemical-producing company Monsanto. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed the lawsuit in 2022, alleging that the company had knowledge of causing widespread environmental damage in Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Winnetka, and other surrounding suburbs.
The attorney general’s office gathered evidence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) infecting air, soil, and waterways in Illinois. Raoul explained how this settlement will make the company pay reparations for their actions.
With this settlement finalized, $80 million dollars will be distributed to nine Chicago suburbs, including Lake Forest. Additionally, as other legal pursuits are decided, the state and affected towns could receive up to $200 million in further damages.
“PCBs have been banned in the U.S. for decades. 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.
“This settlement helps Illinoisans recover from the unlawful and reckless behavior that led to contamination in their communities,” Raoul said in a public announcement.
Monsanto, now merged into German company Bayer, was founded in 1901 by chemist John Francis Queeny. While he first started with production in food additives, his efforts began to diverge during World War II. When offered a position in the now infamous nuclear testing plan the Manhattan Project, Queeny declined due to its distance from Monsanto’s existing operations. Instead, Queeny and Monsanto operated the Dayton Project in Ohio to further test nuclear weapons.
Today, Monsanto is best known for its production of Roundup, an herbicide that is still in use today. That product has also faced scrutiny recently, a 2000 study that determined the active ingredient in Roundup was not harmful to humans was retracted by the paper that published it.
Though Roundup is Monsanto’s currently most popular product, decades ago, their sales consisted of various other chemicals, including PCBs. PCBs are a human-made chemical that were used in an array of different materials, including electrical equipment, paints, and plastics. The compound was banned in 1979 due to their extreme inability to break down and their toxicity.
Monsanto’s production of PCBs was housed in an operation plant in Sauget, Illinois, on the Mississippi River. The plant was the largest PCB production site in the country. Throughout the active creation of these chemicals, it is reported that the company consciously dumped hazardous waste into surrounding sewers and landfills knowing its toxicity. Although this production has stopped for decades, PCBs’ environmental persistence means their danger to citizens still remains. Exposure to PCBs can cause liver damage, reproductive issues, immune system damage, and has been linked to certain types of cancer.
