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Taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook to clean up Monsanto's toxic mess
However, despite recognizing the harm caused by PCBs, Congress now is considering legislation that could immunize Monsanto against lawsuits that Oakland, Berkeley and other cities have filed against the company to recover clean-up costs.
The legislation in question would update the 40-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act, which by all accounts needs reform to cover hundreds of potentially dangerous chemicals.
Unfortunately, a paragraph recently added to the House version of the bill, reportedly by Republican staffers at the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would potentially block cities and states from suing Monsanto or passing their own laws and regulations regarding PCBs.
Even for our current Congress, this is a slimy move.
Monsanto was the sole producer of PCBs for decades prior to 1979, when the federal government banned the chemicals - used in everything from paints to electronics - because they endanger human and environmental health.
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.
Today PCBs are a common environmental contaminant found in all natural resources including water and plants as well as the tissues of marine life, animals and humans. PCBs are one of the few toxic chemicals banned by international law, and they are listed by the EPA as "probable human carcinogens."
Monsanto is a $55 billion company with sales of about $15 billion a year. The company owes its success in part to the money it made selling products that it knew were poisonous while misleading the country about the danger they posed.
The State Water Resources Control Board recently 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 all Californians. The board has issued orders that may require cities including Oakland to reduce the maximum daily load of PCBs that flow into bays and the ocean.
Obviously, cities will incur extraordinary costs to comply.
The company that recklessly caused this contamination should pay to clean it up, not the taxpayers and the American people who will be deprived of vital services like police, fire, housing and libraries if cities have to spend their precious resources to clean up Monsanto's mess.
The so-called "Monsanto Clause" in the House version of the Toxic Substances Control Act is a transparent quid-pro-quo to benefit a company that has made significant campaign contributions every year to House Republicans... and some Democrats as well.
We cannot allow Congress to make it harder for our cities to stand up for our legal rights. Nor should Congress allow Monsanto to evade responsibility for the massive fraud it perpetrated against our entire planet.
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