Sorry, farmers. You’ll have to pay for your allegedly cancer-causing sludge from now on

Erin Brockovich is gone, but in her wake is a lawsuit blaming St. Joseph’s Prime Tanning Corp. of producing sludge that caused a lot of brain tumors in Cameron, Missouri.

The latest twist: Prime Tanning’s owner, National Beef Leathers, will stop giving out the sludge — which the lawsuit claims is filled with high levels of cancer causing hexavalent chromium — to farmers to use as fertilizer. Of course, Prime Tanning’s vice president and CFO released a statement denying the lawsuit’s allegations.

In the statement, Grover Elliott says:

Applying the nutrients

produced as a by-product of tanning as fertilizer to agricultural land

is an environmentally responsible practice that is done in accordance

with all Missouri laws and regulations.

Based on our preliminary

investigation we believe there is no basis for the claims made in the

litigation. We look forward to cooperating fully with state and federal

agencies in their review and investigation

Brockovich begs to differ.