Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
English Court Blocks $6.6B Brazil Lawsuit Against Mining Firm BHP Over Burst Dam
Nov 9 2020 // A 5.0 billion pound ($6.6 billion) English lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP has been struck out, in a blow to a 200,000-strong Brazilian claimant group seeking damages after a devastating dam failure in...
Chicago Scrap Shredder to Pay $18K Fine and Improve Safety, Pollution Prevention
Nov 5 2020 // A Chicago scrap shredder with a history of pollution problems has agreed to pay an $18,000 fine and make improvements intended to prevent explosions and stop metallic pollution from drifting into nearby...
U.S. Officially Becomes 1st Nation to Exit Paris Climate Pact
Nov 4 2020 // The U.S. has officially become the first nation to quit the Paris climate agreement, even as the outcome of the country’s presidential race remains undetermined. President Donald Trump, who’s fighting for...
Wisconsin City’s Failure to Report Contamination Site Deemed an ‘Oversight’
Oct 28 2020 // A 2015 report identified hazardous substances on the site of the Sheboygan Municipal Armory near Lake Michigan, but contamination was only recently reported to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources at the request...
EPA Denies Ban; Permits Farmers’ Use of Dicamba-Based Weed Killers for Five Years
Oct 28 2020 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it will allow farmers to spray crops with weed killers based on the chemical dicamba that are sold by Bayer AG and other companies, after a U.S. appeals court...
Georgia County to Pay $1M Fine Over Sewage Leaks to Buy Time for Repairs
Oct 23 2020 // A suburban Atlanta county where leaky pipes keep spilling raw sewage into creeks and rivers would pay a $1.05 million fine to regulators and get seven more years to make repairs under a new proposed federal court...
Washington Developing Wildfire Smoke Worker-Safety Rules
Oct 23 2020 // The Washington Department of Labor & Industries is developing new workplace safety and health rules regarding wildfire smoke. The L&I announced the move this week in response to an increasing number of acres burned...
AM Best’s Estimates for U.S. Insurers’ Asbestos & Environmental Losses Unchanged
Oct 22 2020 // AM Best said its estimates of $100 billion in asbestos losses and $46 billion in environmental losses for the U.S. property/casualty industry remain unchanged as of year-end 2019. In a report, AM Best notes that A&E...
EPA Permit May Curb Phosphorous Discharge from New Hampshire Fish Hatchery
Oct 22 2020 // A new federal water permit for a New Hampshire fish hatchery that has been accused of polluting local waterways could cut the amount of phosphorous the hatchery can discharge in half. The permit for the Powder Mill Fish...
Greenhouse Gas Storage Project Planned for Louisiana
Oct 21 2020 // A Louisiana company plans to create a deep underground repository to store up to 80 million tons of carbon gas now released into the air by state industrial plants, a “carbon sequestration” project aimed at...
Dell Sued in Dallas for Violation of Equal Pay Laws
Oct 21 2020 // Texas-based Dell Inc. violated federal law by paying lesser wages to a female IT analyst than it paid to a male employee performing work that required substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility, according to a...
Trump EPA Saves Coal Plants Millions with Delay on Coal Ash Pond Closures
Oct 20 2020 // The Trump administration will let some leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash storage ponds stay in operation for years more and some unlined ponds stay open indefinitely under a rule change announced last Friday. The...
Radiation Near Fracking Sites Poses Potential But Not Extreme Health Risk
Oct 14 2020 // Radiation levels downwind of U.S. hydraulic fracturing drilling sites tend to be significantly higher than background levels, posing a potential health risk to nearby residents, according to a study by Harvard researchers...
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Jurisdiction Question in Climate Damages Lawsuit
Oct 5 2020 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by energy companies including BP PLC, Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC contesting a lawsuit by the city of Baltimore seeking damages for...
Texas’ Blue Bell Creameries to Pay $17.25M in Criminal Penalties for Listeria Outbreak
Oct 5 2020 // Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries L.P. has been ordered to pay $17.25 million in criminal penalties for shipments of contaminated ice cream products linked to a 2015 listeriosis outbreak, according to the U.S. Justice...
California Governor Planning to Ban Sale of New Gas Vehicles in 15 Years
Oct 5 2020 // California will ban the sale of new gasoline-powered passenger cars and trucks in 15 years, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in late September, establishing a timeline in the nation’s most populous state that could force...
Deadly Microbe Water Warning Lifted for Final Texas City
Sep 29 2020 // Environmental officials in Texas have lifted a warning for a final Houston-area community to stop using tap water because it might be tainted with a deadly brain-eating microbe, but with a warning that the water should be...
Close Call with Laura Renewed Debate over Houston Storm Surge Barrier
Sep 29 2020 // Houston, a Gulf Coast city that barely rises above sea level, has long worried about a worst-case weather scenario — a direct hit from a powerful storm that sends a wall of water barreling into the region’s...
California Ban on Fracking by 2024 Criticized as Too Late
Sep 28 2020 // California Gov. Gavin Newsom moved Wednesday to end issuing new hydraulic fracturing permits by 2024, a delay criticized by many environmental groups but characterized as legally and politically realistic by...
Warning for Deadly Microbes in Water Lifted for All But 1 Texas City
Sep 28 2020 // Texas officials have lifted a warning for all but one Houston-area community to stop using tap water because it might be tainted with a deadly brain-eating microbe. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality warned the...
