Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Marijuana Pesticide Flap Draws Product Liability Suit in Colorado
Oct 7 2015 // Two marijuana users in Colorado filed a lawsuit Monday against a pot business they said used an unhealthy pesticide to grow their weed – a case that lawyers say is the first product liability claim in the nation...
Halliburton Offers Settlements over Chemical in Oklahoma Wells
Oct 6 2015 // Halliburton is offering settlements to dozens of property owners after a chemical compound called ammonium perchlorate showed up in residents’ private wells. The company has offered settlements to 130 plaintiffs...
Emission Scandal Puts VW Test Site in California Under Scrutiny
Oct 6 2015 // When Volkswagen opened its gleaming pollution testing center near the California coast, a top executive from the German automaker helped snip the blue ribbon and joined a tour of a lab so advanced that VW would brag the...
Lessons from the Gold King Mine Contamination
Oct 5 2015 // On Aug. 5, 2015 an environmental contractor acting under the EPA’s authority breached a bulkhead at the entrance to the Gold King Mine in Southwestern Colorado. As a result, 3 million gallons of heavy metal laced...
Watchdog Says Corporations Say One Thing, Do Another on Climate Change
Oct 1 2015 // It’s all a masquerade. The business world has not embraced action on climate change as statements from some corporations seem to indicate. So says a new watchdog group out of London. Nonprofit InfluenceMap late last...
Zurich Announces Initiative to Fund Solutions to Social and Environmental Issues
Oct 1 2015 // Zurich Insurance Group announced that it plans to “allocate up to 10 percent of its private equity investments to impact private equity funds, currently expected to total $100 million by the end of 2015. These funds...
Duke Energy Reaches $7M Settlement in North Carolina Coal Ash Case
Oct 1 2015 // Duke Energy agreed Tuesday to pay North Carolina regulators $7 million to settle allegations of groundwater pollution at its coal ash pits and to perform accelerated cleanups costing millions of dollars at four sites. The...
EPA Finalizes $14M Plan to Clean Soil at Former Sherwin-Williams Plant Site
Sep 30 2015 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Wednesday that it has finalized a $14 million plan to clean up contaminated soil from homes at the Sherwin-Williams/Hilliards Creek Superfund site in Gibbsboro and...
Texas County Sues Automaker for $100M Over Doctored Diesels
Sep 30 2015 // The Texas county that includes Houston sued Volkswagen Group of America Inc. for $100 million, claiming the carmaker’s cheating on emission controls worsened pollution in the area. It’s believed to the the...
Tianjin Port Blast Chemical Contamination Likely to Boost Re/Insurers’ Losses
Sep 30 2015 // Contamination from chemicals is likely to increase the cost to insurers of last month’s blasts in the Chinese port of Tianjin, costs which are already expected to exceed $3 billion, insurance specialists say. While...
Car Dealers Sue Volkswagen Over Losses Tied to Diesel Cheating
Sep 25 2015 // Independent car dealerships sued Volkswagen AG in California on Thursday over losses they say they will incur following revelations that the company fitted some diesel models with software to cheat on U.S. vehicle...
How Regulators Caught Volkswagen’s Diesel Deception
Sep 25 2015 // The confession of cheating that’s embroiled Volkswagen AG in one of the biggest scandals in auto industry history came on a cool California morning, on the sidelines of an academic conference focused on green...
Bayer CropScience Settles West Virginia Explosion Suit for $5.6M
Sep 23 2015 // Bayer CropScience LP has reached a $5.6 million settlement over an explosion at its Institute, West Virginia, facility that killed two people in 2008, U.S. authorities said on Monday. The company will spend $4.23 million...
Trying to Put a Price Tag on Volkswagen’s Emission-Fraud Scandal
Sep 22 2015 // An $18 billion liability figure attached itself last Friday to Volkswagen’s diesel disaster. This morning comes news that the German car maker has set aside $7.3 billion (€6.5 billion) to cover a scandal spreading...
Oil Company Fined $223K for Fracking Well Fire in Ohio
Sep 17 2015 // A fire at a natural gas fracking well that forced evacuations and killed thousands of fish in eastern Ohio last summer will result in fines of about $223,000 against an international oil and gas company. Environmental...
‘Ridesharing’ a Climate Change Solution around the Corner
Sep 17 2015 // The solution to reducing carbon emissions may be just around the corner. Car sharing can reduce gas consumption and could ultimately help in the battle to curb climate change, according to a Natural Resources Defense...
North Carolina Judge OKs Duke Energy’s Coal-Ash Clean-up Plan
Sep 16 2015 // A judge on Monday rejected a bid by North Carolina’s environment agency to block Duke Energy from removing toxic coal ash from more plants than required under a new state law. Duke Energy has asked to add three power...
No-Penalty Policy a Standard for Oil Wastewater Spills, Critics Say
Sep 10 2015 // In April 2013, a malfunctioning oil well in the countryside north of Oklahoma City caused storage tanks to overflow, sending 42,000 gallons of briny wastewater hurtling over a dike, across a wheat field and into a farm...
West Virginia Residents Sue CSX Over Train Derailment
Sep 4 2015 // A lawsuit has been filed against CSX Corp. on behalf of southern West Virginia residents living near the site of a fiery oil train derailment. Charleston attorney P. Rodney Jackson said that the lawsuit was filed for more...
Kansas Firm Sentenced for Mishandling Chemicals
Aug 28 2015 // An El Dorado, Kan., company has been ordered to pay $97,612 in restitution and a $10,000 fine for mishandling waste chemicals, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said. The company also must pay a $400 special assessment and serve...
