Coca-Cola contaminated water and polluted the environment at a south Indian bottling plant and should pay $65.9 million in compensation, local authorities said on Monday…Kerala state said it had accepted the findings of a panel…that the Palakkad bottling factory, which was closed in 2005 after protests from activists and residents, damaged the local environment by polluting groundwater and dumping solid waste. The compensation claim covered agricultural losses, water pollution and unspecified health damage…Coca-Cola dismissed the panel's findings, saying that any claim must be taken to the courts. It said numerous investigations by the state government and others had cleared the company of any wrong-doing. "Our Palakkad plant operations have not been shown to be the cause of local watershed issues," it said in a statement. "It is unfortunate that the committee in Kerala was appointed on the unproven assumption that damage was caused…by Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages."