Latest Chemicals Headlines
All the headlines from our Chemicals Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Obama Administration Releases Regulations on Fracking on Federal Lands
Mar 22 2015 // The Obama administration issued the first federal regulations for fracking since the drilling technique fueled a domestic energy boom, requiring extensive disclosures of the chemicals used on public land. After years of...
Former Freedom Owners Plead Guilty in West Virginia Chemical Spill Case
Mar 18 2015 // Two former owners of Freedom Industries pleaded guilty on Monday to environmental violations stemming from last year’s Charleston chemical spill that prompted a temporary tap water ban for 300,000 residents. At...
West Virginia Lawmakers Send Rollback of Chemical Spill Law to House Floor
Mar 12 2015 // A West Virginia House panel narrowly approved a bill to scale back protections to prevent chemical spills from sullying water supplies. The January 2014 chemical spill that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 residents...
Increase in Kentucky Fracking Prompts Lawmakers to Update Rules
Feb 26 2015 // As Kentucky mines less coal and produces more natural gas, state lawmakers want to update the environmental protection rules that drilling companies are required to follow. But some landowners worry the state’s rush...
Former West Virginia Chemical Company Execs. Request Delay of Trials
Feb 12 2015 // Four former executives of a West Virginia chemical company are asking a judge to delay their trials on charges stemming from the January 2014 chemical spill. Attorneys for former Freedom Industries President Gary Southern...
Ex-Owner of West Virginia Chemical Co. Responsible for Spill Requests Trial Delay
Feb 6 2015 // The former owner of a chemical company that fouled drinking water used by hundreds of thousands of West Virginia residents wants his trial delayed. Attorneys for Charles Herzing cite the heft of documents they must review...
New Charge Filed for Ex-President of Company Behind West Virginia Chemical Spill
Jan 26 2015 // A former Freedom Industries executive charged in a West Virginia chemical spill is facing a new federal fraud charge stemming from the company’s bankruptcy. A federal grand jury in Beckley handed up a superseding...
Texas Plant with Fatal Gas Leak Had Been Cited for Infractions
Jan 14 2015 // A DuPont and Co pesticide plant where four people died in a gas leak in November had been cited for emissions violations by a state agency on several occasions before the accident, the Houston Chronicle reported. The...
3 Executives Charged in West Virginia Chemical Spill Plead Not Guilty
Jan 14 2015 // Three executives charged in last January’s West Virginia chemical spill have pleaded not guilty in federal court. The pleas came a day after an FBI affidavit was unsealed, saying Freedom Industries knew about...
Report: West Virginia Chemical Spill Company Aware of Defects
Jan 12 2015 // A West Virginia attorney general report says the company behind last January’s chemical spill knew of its facility’s defects for years. The report by Attorney General Patrick Morrisey office says that a 2010...
West Virginia Chemical Spill Posed Inhalation Risk: Study
Jan 9 2015 // Federal health officials overlooked risks of inhaling the licorice-scented fumes of a chemical that spilled into West Virginia’s biggest water supply last January, according to a study. The research by a Purdue...
Environmental Groups Sue EPA to Force Fracking Chemicals Disclosure
Jan 8 2015 // A coalition of advocacy groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for public access to information on toxic chemicals released by the energy industry through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and other forms of...
Executives in West Virginia Chemical Spill Facing Criminal Charges
Dec 19 2014 // When state inspectors arrived at Freedom Industries asking about a licorice smell enveloping West Virginia’s capital city, the point person at the tank farm, Dennis P. Farrell, told them he knew nothing about a...
Exec in West Virginia Chemical Spill Charged with Lying About Role
Dec 10 2014 // A West Virginia executive faces charges of lying to protect his personal wealth from lawsuits after his company spilled chemicals into 300,000 people’s water supply in January, according to a criminal complaint...
Chemical Leak at DuPont Plant in Texas Spurs Wrongful Death Suit
Nov 20 2014 // The widow of one of four workers killed in a Houston-area DuPont chemical plant leak has filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking more than $1 million. The Houston Chronicle reported that the lawsuit was filed by Michelle...
Texas Chemical Plant Workers Died from Accidental Asphyxiation
Nov 19 2014 // Four workers who died on Nov. 15 at a DuPont and Co. plant in Texas were accidentally asphyxiated by chemicals, the coroner’s office said, another finding that suggests the victims were not wearing full safety...
4 Workers Dead after Leak at Texas Chemical Plant
Nov 17 2014 // Four workers were killed and one was injured during a hazardous chemical leak at a DuPont industrial plant in suburban Houston, company officials said. The chemical, methyl mercaptan, began leaking from a valve around 4...
Oklahoma Chemical Storage Site Locations Available on Online
Nov 11 2014 // The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality has put on the department’s website the locations of chemical storage sites and other facilities in the state. The map also shows the locations of oil and gas wells,...
OSHA Initiative Targets Hazardous Chemicals in Workplace
Nov 3 2014 // The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is launching a national dialogue on ways to prevent work-related illness caused by exposure to hazardous substances. The first stage...
Judge Halts Disposal in Louisiana of Texas Ebola-Tainted Ash
Oct 15 2014 // A state judge signed an order temporarily blocking ash from the incineration of a Texas Ebola victim’s belongings to be disposed of at a southwest Louisiana site. Attorney General Buddy Caldwell had sought the order...
