Yesterday, City Council approved a settlement with Monsanto to bring relief to Portland and the many other cities and counties that have had to manage the impacts of PCBs in our waterways.

Governments across the country, including the City of Portland, filed more than a dozen lawsuits against Monsanto for contaminating water bodies by manufacturing chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, between the 1930s and 1977.

Monsanto was the sole manufacturer of these chemicals.
Environmental contamination disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous, and other people of color across the U.S. and in Portland.

As First Peoples of this region, Indigenous communities bear an additional and unique burden resulting from environmental contamination.

Consequently, Native peoples are often unable to access safe and once abundant foods that are inextricably linked to their culture, forcing them to make the detrimental choice between their health and their ability to carry on their culture.

City Council’s decision today directs the Bureau of Environmental Services to co-create a process with impacted communities to determine how these settlement funds will be spent.

Council expects the process to be informed by impacted communities and to recognize the need for structural and lasting improvement for disproportionately affected communities.

These needs include those of Indigenous communities, addressing Brownfield land in underserved communities, and other goals that the process identifies that are not currently being addressed.

Monsanto is placing $550 million in a settlement fund that will be distributed under a court approved plan to the more than 2500 cities, counties and port districts that are regulated under the Clean Water Act because of Monsanto’s PCBs.

The City will not know the amount of settlement money that it will receive until the number of class members is finally assessed and the court approves the distribution of the funds. This process may take several months.