Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Montana Will Take Over Deadly Asbestos Cleanup Site
Sep 25 2017 // The cleanup of a northwest Montana community where health professionals say hundreds of people have been killed by asbestos exposure has entered a new phase as officials turn their focus to keeping residents safe over the...
Chubb’s Launches Business Pack Insurance for Australian SMEs
Sep 25 2017 // Chubb has launched a package insurance solution called Chubb Business Pack Insurance for small and medium enterprises in Australia. This solution aims to provide broad coverage for property and liability exposures to help...
Federal Judge Tentatively Approves West Virginia Chemical Spill Settlement
Sep 25 2017 // A federal judge has tentatively approved a revised settlement to a class-action lawsuit over a West Virginia chemical spill that left up to 300,000 people without tap water for up to nine days. U.S. District Judge John...
EPA Won’t Say Which Texas Sites Toxic Waste Has Been Removed From After Harvey
Sep 24 2017 // The Environmental Protection Agency says it has recovered 517 containers of “unidentified, potentially hazardous material” from highly contaminated toxic waste sites in Texas that flooded last month during...
Ohio Increases Fines Against Pipeline Developer to $2.3M
Sep 22 2017 // Ohio’s environmental regulators have more than doubled the proposed fines against a company building a natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Michigan, saying the two sides are at an impasse. The fines now stand...
SEC Hacking Latest in Series of Government Agency Cyber Breaches
Sep 22 2017 // A major computer hack at America’s top stock market regulator is the latest sign that data stored in the highest reaches of the U.S. government remains vulnerable to cyber attacks, despite efforts across multiple...
Air Monitoring Company Added to Texas Chemical Plant Negligence Lawsuit
Sep 21 2017 // Air monitoring company Bureau Veritas SA has been added to a negligence suit alleging first responders inhaled dangerous fumes during a fire at a chemical plant, lawyers for Texas police and emergency workers said. The...
Hurricane Harvey-Caused Oil, Chemical Spills Dwarfed by Katrina’s
Sep 18 2017 // More than 22,000 barrels of oil, refined fuels and chemicals spilled at sites across Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, along with millions of cubic feet of natural gas and hundreds of tons of other toxic substances, a...
Obama Coal Ash Waste Regulation Getting New Look by Trump EPA
Sep 15 2017 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said it will reconsider a rule regulating coal ash waste from power plants in a win for utility industry groups that petitioned for changes. The EPA, the lead...
U.S. Investigating Arkema’s Safety Practices After Texas Fires
Sep 13 2017 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether chemical maker Arkema SA followed safety rules at its Crosby, Texas, plant where chemical containers exploded and burned for days after flooding from...
Hurricane Irma May Push Island States to Seek Climate Change Aid
Sep 13 2017 // Devastation from Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean will sharpen the demands from small island nations that top fossil-fuel consumers help them cope with damage attributable to climate change, according to representatives of...
Texas GOP Leaders Push for Expensive, Long-Delayed Flood Infrastructure Projects
Sep 12 2017 // In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is calling for the construction of flood control infrastructure in the Houston area — things he said should have been built “decades and decades...
North Carolina Officials to Test Unregulated Chemical in Groundwater at Plant
Sep 12 2017 // Environmental officials say they’ll test groundwater for people living near a North Carolina chemical plant after finding worrying signs of an unregulated and little-studied compound. The state Department of...
Is Maryland Ready for the Next Big Storm?
Sep 11 2017 // In Maryland, which historically has ducked many of the worst storms of the last 50 years, the question is increasingly not if, but when the next big one will strike. And while some believe the state has often been spared...
Chemical Fallout from Hurricane Irma Could Be Worse than Harvey’s
Sep 8 2017 // Before flames and smoke leaped into the sky over the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, last week, Jolyn Masters was hunkered down at home on a Hurricane Harvey-flooded street a mile away. Then came a knock. A...
Harvey Leaves Texans to Clean Up Amid Health and Environmental Dangers
Sep 4 2017 // Harvey has moved on from the U.S. Gulf Coast, leaving behind a toxic stew of human sewage, dead cattle, leaking chemical plants, spilled gasoline storage tanks and abandoned pickup trucks. The cleanup will take patience,...
Arkema Plant Fires Underscore Chemical Industry Risk Management Challenge
Sep 1 2017 // In its devastatingly slow crawl up the industrial Gulf Coast, Hurricane Harvey is proving to be the biggest test yet of the safety and vulnerabilities of the U.S. chemicals industry. A Houston-area chemical plant was hit...
Massachusetts Man Arrested for Allegedly Running Motor Vehicle Theft Scheme
Aug 31 2017 // An Avon, Mass., man has been arrested and arraigned in connection with allegedly running a major motor vehicle theft scheme. Authorities arrested Jose Sostre on Tuesday in Avon. Following his arrest, Sostre was arraigned...
Arkansas Task Force: State Should Bar Dicamba Herbicide Next Year
Aug 27 2017 // An Arkansas task force has advised the state to bar sprayings after April 15 next year of agricultural herbicides containing the chemical dicamba, which has been linked to crop damage across the U.S. farm belt, a state...
Harvey Hits Texas With Massive Winds, Torrential Rain
Aug 26 2017 // Harvey became the strongest hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years, making landfall in the heart of the U.S. energy sector and bringing the danger of a life-threatening storm surge. Harvey came ashore as a Category 4...
