This week, I want to thank the residents of Oakland for making this such a great city. I am inspired by the amazing people who live and work here, and who strive to maintain and nurture the unique culture and characteristics of Oaktown for future generations. I am grateful to live in Oakland and to work to protect and advance the rights and interests of all Oaklanders.
Instead of our usual newsletter, this issue focuses on one effort to secure environmental justice for our community.
City Attorney files lawsuit against Monsanto for contaminating Oakland waterways and the SF Bay with PCBs
In November my Office filed a lawsuit to hold the Monsanto chemical company accountable for its long-standing contamination of Oakland's storm water and the San Francisco Bay with highly toxic Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCBs).
Monsanto produced PCBs for approximately 50 years until the U.S. Congress banned them because they endanger human and environmental health. Despite the 1979 ban, today PCBs are a common environmental contaminant that is found in all natural resources including water and plants as well as the tissues of marine life, animals and humans. PCBs can destroy fish habitats and are associated with illnesses and cancer in humans.
From a legal, moral and ethical standpoint, the company that is responsible for this vast contamination should bear the burden of cleaning up our environment, not the taxpayers of Oakland and California.
During the five decades prior to the 1979 ban, Monsanto's PCBs were incorporated into a wide variety of products and applications including power transformers, electrical equipment, paints, caulks and other building materials. Monsanto knew that PCBs were toxic and could not be contained as they readily escaped into the environment, finding their way into bays, oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, soil and air. Although evidence confirms that Monsanto recognized that PCBs were becoming "a global contaminant," well before the 1979 ban, it concealed this information and increased production of these profitable compounds.
In other words, Monsanto knew that its products posed a significant threat to human and environmental health around the world. However, the company chose profits over protecting people, and American cities and citizens are still suffering the consequences
The State Water Resources Control Board has determined that the presence of PCBs in Oakland's storm water threatens San Francisco Bay as a habitat for fish and wildlife and interferes with the Bay's use and enjoyment by the people of the State of California. The Board recently issued a tentative order that affects the City's storm water operations and may require a reduction in the maximum daily load of PCBs that flow from Oakland waterways into the Bay.
Oakland will incur significant costs to remove PCBs from storm water flowing into San Francisco Bay. County-wide costs could reach $1 billion.
One of my missions is to stand up for environmental justice and the health and safety of our community, our people and our planet. Clean water, uncontaminated land, unpolluted air and open spaces should be the birthright of future generations.
To this end, we reached a
major settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year that will significantly update our aging sewer infrastructure to prevent sewage overflows and spills into the Bay. My Office also has worked and provided legal advice on sterling initiatives to protect Oakland's environment such as the City's Energy and Climate Action Plan, restoration of the stunning Sausal Creek in the Oakland hills and projects to promote alternative transportation including bicycles.
We will continue to prioritize this work in the years ahead.
