(Recent nightscape at the industrial mouth of the Duwamish, by Don Brubeck)

This story was breaking just before other news of the day took precedence, but we did want to make note of it in case you didn’t hear elsewhere – a lawsuit over pollution in the Duwamish River. Announced by the office of City Attorney Pete Holmes this morning:

The City of Seattle is suing three “Monsanto” corporations to make them pay to remove cancer-causing chemical compounds known as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) from the City’s drainage system and the Duwamish River. Monsanto was the sole producer of PCBs in the United States from 1935 to 1979.

PCBs — found globally in bays, oceans, rivers, streams, oil and air – are an equal opportunity toxic that destroys populations of fish, birds and other animal life as well as harming human immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems.

At issue in the complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle is PCB contamination in 20,000 acres that drain to the Lower Duwamish, a federal Superfund site, and in areas that drain to the East Waterway adjacent to Harbor Island, a separate federal Superfund site. PCBs were detected in “82 percent of samples of sediment in drainage pipes” and in “73 percent of samples collected from catch basins in street right-of-ways” in Lower Duwamish drainage basins.

Here’s the full lawsuit document, provided by the CAO:

The news release continues:

Under a consent decree issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology, the City will build a stormwater treatment plant adjacent to the Lower Duwamish that is designed to remove PCBs from storm water – at an estimated cost of nearly $27 million.

“Long after the dangers of PCBs were widely known, Monsanto continued its practice of protecting its business interests at our expense,” City Attorney Pete Holmes said. “The City intends to hold Monsanto accountable for the damage its product wreaked on our environment.”

”Seattle residents, waterways and wildlife, all deserve protection from harmful toxins like those used by Monsanto,” Mayor Ed Murray said. “We are taking action to recover the significant costs of cleaning up after Monsanto and to make clear that Seattle will stand up against contamination that threatens our environment.”

The director of Seattle Public Utilities, Ray Hoffman, said: “PCBs are dangerous, known to cause cancer and other health concerns. This lawsuit seeks to hold the polluter accountable to our community.”

Seattle becomes the sixth major American municipality to sue Monsanto, joining San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, San Diego and Spokane.

The wastewater treatment that’s to be built, as mentioned above, will be in South Park, “where 7th Avenue South meets the river,” according to this SPU webpage, which lays out a timeline over the next decade. (Here’s what else SPU is doing in South Park.)

Our news partners at The Seattle Times quote a Monsanto spokesperson as saying the company “is not responsible for the costs alleged in this matter.”