Pinckneyville receives $46,923 from atrazine class action lawsuit

The City of Pinckneyville announced the receipt of $46,923 from the settlement of a lawsuit for drinking water contamination by the weed killer atrazine. Pinckneyville was one of 1,085 municipalities participating in the class-action suit.

The St. Louis law firm Korein Tillery and Dallas firm Baron and Budd filed the lawsuit against Swiss chemical manufacturer Syngenta AG and other manufacturers of atrazine on behalf of all the Midwestern community water systems with detectable levels of atrazine. Each city submitted claims for remediation costs. The amount of each claim was determined by past atrazine detections.

While the funds are to reimburse the city for past expenses for removing atrazine from drinking water, the court noted that it was up to the municipalities how best to allocate the money.

The lawsuit was initially filed in 2004, but expanded in 2010. The parties involved agreed to settle on Oct. 23, 2012 for a total of $105 million.

Syngenta acknowledged no liability and continues to stand by the safety of atrazine. A statement on their website reads "The scientific evidence continues to make it clear that no one ever has or ever could be exposed to enough atrazine in water to affect their health. The plaintiffs acknowledge that they have not commissioned and are not aware of any new scientific studies relating to the safety of atrazine."