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The lawsuit began on November 18, 2010, with the City of Greenville, et al. serving as the plaintiffs, and Syngenta serving as the defendants. The plaintiffs allege that under the Safe Drinking Water Act, 42 U.S.C. § 300f et seq., they are obligated to test the finished water, after it has been processed, to ensure that all contaminants are below maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) set by the EPA. They alleged that Syngenta knowingly sold their herbicide “atrazine” to farmers despite its tendency to contaminate drinking water, and seeked to recover costs associated with the construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of GAC (granular activated carbon) systems for each plaintiff and testing of atrazine, as well as punitive damages.

Beginnings of Litigation
The plaintiffs asserted the following counts:

Count 1: “[Trespassing] onto their rights to possess the raw water.”

Count 2: “Public nuisance by unreasonably interfering with [the plaintiffs’] use and enjoyment of their raw water sources”

Count 3: “Strict liability for manufacturing, marketing and selling an unreasonably dangerous product.”

Count 4: “Negligence for breaching various duties to the plaintiffs to avoid contaminating their raw water sources.”

Syngenta responded to these allegations by requesting to dismiss this case on the grounds that the plaintiffs suffered no injury from the actions of Syngenta. The defendant also requested to dismiss individual claims, on the grounds that no illegal action was taken according to the laws in some specific plaintiffs’ states of residence. Furthermore, Syngenta requested to dismiss claims based on damages which had yet to occur, as well as which occurred more than 5 years prior to this lawsuit’s filing.

The court then affirmed the plaintiffs’ claim that damages occurred regardless of the fact that Atrazine levels had not exceeded MCLs set by the EPA, citing In re: Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (“MTBE”) Products Liability Litigation, 458 F. Supp. 2d 149 (S.D.N.Y. 2006) and Iberville Parish, 45 F. Supp. 2d at 936, but required that the plaintiffs prove their claim that Syngenta’s actions have or will require them to incur further costs in their filtration processes. Until they could prove that atrazine had been measured at levels exceeding MCLs set by the EPA, this plea was put on pause.

Court Rulings
On November 18, 2010 it was ordered by District Judge J. Phil Gilbert and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois that the defendant’s request to dismiss this case was granted in part and denied in part. The court granted, in particular, the defendant’s request to dismiss the claims made by plaintiffs City of Jasper, Indiana, and Indiana-American Water Company, but denied all other aspects of the defendant’s request. It was also ordered by the court, on this day, that all parties refrain from using exceedingly small fonts to fit their arguments into the page limits set by the Local Rules.

On July 21, 2011 District Judge J. Phil Gilbert and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois granted the two not-for-profit organizations Environmental Law and Policy Center and Prairie Rivers Network motion for leave to intervene in the case City of Greenville v. Syngenta. The intervenors allege that Syngenta does not have the right to maintain under seal a large portion of their documents which the court has filed, as they have requested. The court would later affirm over the course of almost two years, most of these intervenors’ requests for unsealing and/or refiling of the defendants’ documents with specific sensitive sections redacted.

On October 23, 2012, District Judge J. Phil Gilbert and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois granted the plaintiffs’ request for the Court to award them attorneys’ fees, as well as the parties’ motions to settle the lawsuit City of Greenville v. Syngenta for the sum of $105,000,000 USD to be awarded to the Settlement Class of City of Greenville et al., and all others similarly situated.