Pacific Gas and Electric Company Settles Chromium Claims.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pacific Gas and Electric Company today issued the following comment on a $295 million legal settlement reached with plaintiffs to resolve litigation related to the use of chromium at three of the company's gas compressor stations in the 1950s, 60s and 70s:

This settlement resolves more than 10 years of litigation and brings closure to substantially all of the outstanding chromium-related claims against PG&E. Importantly, it enables both sides to go forward. As such, we view it as an outcome that is fair and in the best interest of all the parties.

This case resulted from events that occurred many decades ago. In the 1960s, some PG&E workers became aware that chromium was present in groundwater wells near our operations and, regrettably, the facts suggest that they did not share that information with others in the company or the public at the time.

Clearly, this situation should never have happened, and we are sorry that it did. It is not the way we do business, and we believe it would not happen in our company today. In 1987, when we discovered what ...