Bayer will pay more than $10 billion to end thousands of lawsuits filed over its Roundup weed killer, the company announced Wednesday. The settlement also resolves many other cases filed against Bayer over dicamba herbicide and water contaminated with toxic PCBs.

Roundup’s active ingredient is glyphosate, which many plaintiffs blame for causing them to develop cancer. It is produced by Bayer’s Monsanto subsidiary.

The decision to resolve the Roundup cases, Bayer CEO Werner Baumann said, will “return the conversation about the safety and utility of glyphosate-based herbicides to the scientific and regulatory arena and to the full body of science.”

The Monsanto settlement does not cover three cases that have already gone to trial and which will now continue through the appeals process. In one of those cases, a California jury awarded a couple more than $2 billion in damages, before a court sharply lowered the amount.

The settlement is pending approval from Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Five years ago, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Some government health agencies have determined glyphosate is safe to use, but plaintiffs in more than 100,000 lawsuits say the chemical harmed them, including allegations that it caused non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The settlement calls for Bayer to pay from $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion to resolve current Roundup lawsuits. The company will also set aside $1.25 billion to fund payouts for potential claims in the future.

In addition to claims over the Roundup product, the agreement will also settle many cases filed over the drift of dicamba. Farmers say that when the chemical is sprayed it drifts into neighboring fields and gardens, inflicting broad damaging there.

Bayer says it will “pay up to a total of $400 million to resolve the multi-district litigation pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and claims for the 2015-2020 crop years” related to dicamba claims.

That portion of the deal does not include a decision from earlier this year, when a jury ordered Bayer and its codefendant, BASF, to pay a Missouri peach farmer more than $250 million.

The settlement also includes some $820 million in payments over claims that Monsanto polluted public waters with PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls.

As State Impact Pennsylvania has reported:

“In 1979, the EPA banned the use of PCBs, but they still exist in some products produced before 1979. They persist in the environment because they bind to sediments and soils. High exposure to PCBs can cause birth defects, developmental delays, and liver changes.”

Monsanto legally manufactured PCBs, before halting production in 1977. The company will pay $650 million to settle local lawsuits, and $170 million to the attorneys-general of New Mexico, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

NPR’s Dan Charles contributed to this report.