ST. LOUIS – More than 1,000 communities that have spent millions of dollars over many years filtering a common agricultural herbicide out of their drinking water are welcoming their shares of a $105 million settlement with the weed-killer’s maker.

The varying payouts end more than nine years of wrangling in a class-action lawsuit over Syngenta’s atrazine, which widely was used for decades by corn farmers to kill grasses and broadleaf weeds. Research has shown runoff after rainstorms can wash the chemical into streams and rivers, where it can enter drinking water supplies.

The lawsuit claimed atrazine exposure could lead to health problems such as low birth weights, birth defects and reproductive problems. The company has countered that no one ever has or ever could be exposed to enough atrazine in water to affect their health.