DuPont has reached a proposed settlement in regards to usage of Imprelis, an herbicide. The settlement of the class action lawsuit has been preliminarily approved by the federal court in Pennsylvania.

DuPont had already paid about $380 million to resolve claims over its banned weed killer, and it is slated to give $6.5 million more, a federal judge said, giving a settlement final approval, according to Courthouse News Service.

In July 2011, a class sued E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. in Wilmington, Del., several months after it introduced Imprelis, a new herbicide designed to kill unwanted weeds without harming nontarget vegetation, but that allegedly kills spruce, pines and other evergreens, costing people millions of dollars nationwide.

Within about a month, at least 17 similar class actions had been filed , and the Environmental Protection Agency soon barred DuPont from selling the herbicide. Though DuPont started its own claim-resolution process in September 2011, lawsuits piled up, alleging fraud, violations of the Consumer Protection Act, and many state-law claims.

The company eventually settled with the owners of property on or next to which Imprelis was used from August 2010 to 2011. That settlement provided a May 2015 warranty on replacement trees, tree care and maintenance payments, as well as an extra 15 percent for incidental damages. It bars the claimants, however, from seeking environmental or personal injury damages. DuPont will also remove damaged trees or pay for their removal.

Individuals who applied Imprelis to their own property will be reimbursed up to $2,000 for time spent investigating tree damage. The settlement will also compensate workers hired to apply Imprelis on others' property prior to September 2011. It is possible for these claimants to participate in the Imprelis recall program, but they cannot recover lost profits or damages arising from suits brought against them.

For information about the proposed settlement for the class action lawsuit, please visit www.treedamagesettlement.com.