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http://www.kgw.com/news/local/city-of-portland-to-sue-monsanto-for-contaminating-waterways/85906401

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The city of Portland unanimously passed a resolution authorizing City Attorney Tracy Reeve to sue the Monsanto Company for contaminating Portland waterways with PCBs.

Reeve says the city has already spent a significant amount of public money to clean up the PCB contamination in the Willamette River and Columbia Slough and will continue to do so. It has known for years of the contamination.

“In our case there are PCBs widely distributed throughout Portland Harbor and that’s one of the main reasons it was listed as a superfund site back in December of 2000,” said Travis Williams, executive director of Willamette Riverkeeper.

According to the city attorney, Monsanto was the sole U.S. manufacturer of PCBs and manufactured over 1 billion pounds of PCBs between the 1930s and the 1970s, when Congress banned PCBs. Reeve says Monsanto’s own documents show the company continued to sell PCBs long after it knew of the dangers they presented to human health and the environment.

“Monsanto was the only manufacturer of PCB's in the United States from 1939 until PCBs were banned in the late 70's,” said Reeve. “During that time there's documentary evidence that Monsanto knew that PCBs were dangerous to the environment, that they migrated from waterways to fish, from fish to birds and also to people and they, nonetheless, continued to manufacture and distribute PCBs.”

Statement from Monsanto

We are reviewing the lawsuit and its allegations. However, Monsanto is not responsible for the costs alleged in this matter. Monsanto today, and for the last decade, has been focused solely on agriculture, but we share a name with a company that dates back to 1901.

That company manufactured and sold PCBs that at the time were a lawful and useful product that were then incorporated by third parties into other useful products. Various municipalities built landfills on their bays and operated them for decades to deposit city waste and PCB-containing products into those waterfront landfills. Manufacturing and industrial facilities also operated in these areas, contributing to PCBs in the general area. If the third-party disposal or municipal disposal practices of the past have led four decades later to the state’s development of lawful limits on future PCB discharges into various bays and rivers through storm water, then those third parties and municipal landfill operators bear responsibility for these additional costs.

 

[Xe4]

Wait, the city of Portland us suing 30 years after the fact??? It seems like they didn't want to clean up their own waterways, and now they are trying to get the money from Monsanto.

 

[VeeP]

Wait, the city of Portland us suing 30 years after the fact??? It seems like they didn't want to clean up their own waterways, and now they are trying to get the money from Monsanto.

It seems like they've already spent and are still spending money to clean up the water ways? If Monsanto was at fault they should pay up.

 

[Trojita]

The old "that wasn't us" defense.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Portland's waterways being not much more than a thick stream of toxic pudding sludging through the center of town has been a running joke among the citizenry since I've been alive.

 

[MikeDown]

Portland's waterways being not much more than a thick stream of toxic pudding sludging through the center of town has been a running joke among the citizenry since I've been alive.

pretty much this, like Seattle's gum wall we need our own "national treasurer"

 

[jediyoshi]

Wait, the city of Portland us suing 30 years after the fact??? It seems like they didn't want to clean up their own waterways, and now they are trying to get the money from Monsanto.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The city of Portland unanimously passed a resolution authorizing City Attorney Tracy Reeve to sue the Monsanto Company for contaminating Portland waterways with PCBs.

Reeve says the city has already spent a significant amount of public money to clean up the PCB contamination in the Willamette River and Columbia Slough and will continue to do so. It has known for years of the contamination.

“In our case there are PCBs widely distributed throughout Portland Harbor and that’s one of the main reasons it was listed as a superfund site back in December of 2000,” said Travis Williams, executive director of Willamette Riverkeeper.

According to the city attorney, Monsanto was the sole U.S. manufacturer of PCBs and manufactured over 1 billion pounds of PCBs between the 1930s and the 1970s, when Congress banned PCBs. Reeve says Monsanto’s own documents show the company continued to sell PCBs long after it knew of the dangers they presented to human health and the environment.

“Monsanto was the only manufacturer of PCB's in the United States from 1939 until PCBs were banned in the late 70's,” said Reeve. “During that time there's documentary evidence that Monsanto knew that PCBs were dangerous to the environment, that they migrated from waterways to fish, from fish to birds and also to people and they, nonetheless, continued to manufacture and distribute PCBs.”

.

 

[Trojita]

For those inquiring about Monsanto's defense claim.

It's all due to corporate fuckery that should long been ruled against

Through a series of transactions, the Monsanto that existed from 1901 to 2000 and the current Monsanto are legally two distinct corporations. Although they share the same name and corporate headquarters, many of the same executives and other employees, and responsibility for liabilities arising out of activities in the industrial chemical business, the agricultural chemicals business is the only segment carried forward from the pre-1997 Monsanto Company to the current Monsanto Company. This was accomplished beginning in the 1980s:

1985: Monsanto purchased G. D. Searle & Company for $2.7 billion in cash.[51][52] In this merger, Searle's aspartame business became a separate Monsanto subsidiary, the NutraSweet Company. CEO of NutraSweet, Robert B. Shapiro, became CEO of Monsanto from 1995 to 2000.[citation needed]
1996: Monsanto acquired Agracetus, a majority interest in Calgene, creators of the Flavr Savr tomato, and 40% of DeKalb Genetics Corporation. It purchased the remainder of DeKalb in 1998.[53][54]

1997: Monsanto spun off its industrial chemical and fiber divisions into Solutia[2][55] In January, Monsanto announced the purchase of Holden's Foundations Seeds, a privately held seed business. By acquiring Holden's, Monsanto became the biggest American producer of foundation corn, the parent seed from which hybrids are made.[56] The combined purchase price was $925 million. Also, in April, Monsanto purchased the remaining shares of Calgene.

1999: Monsanto sold off NutraSweet Co.[2] In December, Monsanto merged with Pharmacia & Upjohn,[2] and the agricultural division became a wholly owned subsidiary of the "new" Pharmacia; the medical research divisions of Monsanto, which included products such as Celebrex, were rolled into Pharmacia.[57]

2000 (October): Pharmacia spun off its Monsanto subsidiary into a new company,[2] the "new Monsanto".[58] Monsanto agreed to indemnify Pharmacia against any liabilities that might be incurred from judgments against Solutia. As a result, the new Monsanto continues to be a party to numerous lawsuits that relate to operations of the old Monsanto. Pharmacia was bought by Pfizer in a deal announced in 2002 and completed in 2003.[59][60])

Imagine using the excuse in a criminal case that you aren't he same person that committed the crime since you had a guru open your chakras.

Or better yet in a civil case claim to have no money by saying there is two of you and the other one has all the money, and you can't sue that one because reasons.

 

[Kinitari]

This is complicated, as Monsanto is more or less a diffe rent company post the 90s, as well as it's kind of weird that the manufacturer who sells to third parties is on the line for the third parties disposal.

That being said, keeping the Monsanto name might make this inescapable, and if there is legit evidence that Monsanto knew that this would be a problem, then some sort of repercussion is in order... I just don't know how it would even work.

 

[iamblades]

For those inquiring about Monsanto's defense claim.

It's all due to corporate fuckery that should long been ruled against



Imagine using the excuse in a criminal case that you aren't he same person that committed the crime since you had a guru open your chakras.

Or better yet in a civil case claim to have no money by saying there is two of you and the other one has all the money, and you can't sue that one because reasons.

Doesn't really matter in this case as the statue of limitations is clearly up(unless there is some obscure exception I can't find in the Oregon state law), so I don't see how this will work, and that's if they had personally dumped the shit in the river.

Holding a spinoff subsidiary solely responsible for something a client of the parent company did 40 years ago seems questionable to me. If they were suing every company that ended up with a piece of the old Monsanto, that'd be one thing(I still think it's too late), but suing only the one that ended up with the name is iffy.