DuPont Says Claims Over Herbicide Hit the Millions DuPont, which introduced a herbicide last year that was later linked to the deaths of thousands of trees, has begun processing claims for compensation that are running into the hundreds of millions of dollars, company officials said. Some 30,000 homeowners, golf courses, municipalities and landscapers across the country have submitted claims, said Rik Miller, DuPont's president for crop protection. The formal deadline for submission was Feb. 1, but a few are still trickling in and are being accepted, he added. DuPont has declined to estimate how many trees have died from exposure to the herbicide, marketed under the name Imprelis, but tree experts say it is probably at least in the hundreds of thousands. "We're making really good progress," said Mr. Miller, who is in charge of the claims resolution process. Officials expect to have offers out to half of the claimants by the end of July and hope to complete the process by the fall, he added. Weeks after homeowners and lawn care professionals began applying the new product on lawns, golf courses and cemeteries around the country in the spring last year, many trees on those properties, primarily conifers, started turning brown and dying. By August, DuPont had pulled the chemical from the market, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency banned it shortly afterward. Heavily promoted to the lawn care industry as environmentally friendly because of its low toxicity to mammals, the product has proved a costly setback for the company. DuPont officials say that they have set aside $225 million for claims people have already submitted, and that the payout could eventually reach $575 million. That does not include costs related to a class-action lawsuit filed by thousands of homeowners, landscapers and others, consolidated in federal court in Philadelphia. Anything over $100 million is submitted to DuPont's insurers, the company said. The Baker National Golf Course in Minnesota, for one, has received an offer of $382,000 for its dead trees, officials there said. Some lawn care operators and homeowners say they are frustrated by the pace of the claims process and communications from the company. "We're hearing nothing," said Janet DaPrato of Columbus, Ohio, who had two trees die last year and has had two more die since. Stewart Hanson of Arteka, a Minnesota landscaping company, said DuPont had valued the trees of his clients at about $2,400 for a 20-foot conifer and $7,100 for a 40-footer. But Mr. Miller of DuPont said the company prided itself on its responsiveness. Compensation for trees that are damaged but still living is estimated at around $500, which would go toward restorative treatment. As a condition of settlement, clients must wait for an inspection of large dead brown trees in their yard, sometimes 30, 40 or 50 feet tall, before removing them. While people with 40-foot dead trees are being compensated, landscapers realistically can plant replacement trees that are only 12 to 16 feet high. Whether Imprelis, the trade name for the chemical aminocycopyrachlor, will stay in the soil and affect new trees is unknown, experts say. Some suspect the problem is not over.