Latest Pollution Headlines

All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Feds Say Tennessee Failed to Give Timely Notice on Oil Well Fire

Mar 24 2008 // A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official has told Anderson County residents that Tennessee officials did not inform them of an oil well fire in a timely manner. The well near Oliver Springs struck a huge pocket of...

California Tahoe Fire Commission Wants Federal Aid

Mar 24 2008 // A commission created after a Lake Tahoe blaze destroyed more than 250 California homes voted unanimously to seek state and federal emergency declarations to combat what it says is an imminent threat of catastrophic...

Virginia Landfill Now One of Nation’s Most Hazardous Sites

Mar 21 2008 // A Loudoun County, Virginia landfill blamed for contaminating drinking wells is being added to a federal registry of the nation’s most hazardous sites. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added the Hidden Lane...

New Jerseyans Protest Designation of Superfund Site

Mar 21 2008 // Officials in Gibbsboro, New Jersey are protesting the designation of a federal Superfund environmental site. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the designation for 60 acres that center on a former...

Insurers Could Pay Up to $730 Million to Cover Costs of PCB Cleanup in Wis.

Mar 19 2008 // Nine insurance companies should cover the costs assessed to the former Appleton Papers Inc. for cleanup of the industrial chemical PCBs in the Lower Fox River, a jury decided Monday. After a five-week trial, the jury took...

ACE Europe Launches Private Finance Initiative

Mar 12 2008 // ACE has announced the launch of ACE PFI (Private Finance Initiative), which it describes as a “fully integrated insurance solution providing comprehensive cover and risk management advice for all aspects of a PFI...

Cleanliness is Key to Preventing Hot Tub Claims

Mar 10 2008 // Proper risk management includes daily inspections, regular cleaning, usage policies and water tests Hot tub operators are reporting an increasing number of “hot tub rash” claims from people using their...

Seattle Court Rules Failure to Disclose Pollution Incidents Voids Vessel Policy

Mar 10 2008 // The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle has upheld an Alaskan district court ruling that a primary insurance carrier can cancel a marine vessel’s pollution insurance policy on the basis that the insured...

Nanotechnology: A Big Risk in a Small Package?

Mar 10 2008 // Nanotechnology presents great opportunity, but the impact on insurance is still unknown Insurance professionals gathered in the oak-paneled Old Library of Lloyd’s of London this past December to learn more about a...

CDC Official: Reaction to Formaldehyde in Emergency Trailers Too Slow

Mar 6 2008 // The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should have reacted sooner to concerns about hazardous fumes in government-issued trailers housing thousands of Gulf Coast hurricane victims, a CDC official told a...

Lexington Insurance Adds Eco-Friendly Building Coverage

Mar 3 2008 // Lexington Insurance Co. has begun offering commercial property insurance that will replace customers’ damaged buildings and property with green-friendly products. The coverage, called Upgrade to Green, is designed to...

W. Va. Judge Upholds $196M Award against DuPont

Feb 27 2008 // A circuit judge in West Virginia has upheld a $196.2 million punitive damages award against DuPont in a class-action pollution case. Harrison County Circuit Court Chief Judge Thomas A. Bedell also ordered the Wilmington,...

People

Feb 24 2008 // BMS, a reinsurance intermediary based in Philadelphia, has appointed James T. Buysse as chief executive officer of its North American operations, BMS Intermediaries Inc. Buysse has 25 years of experience in the reinsurance...

People

Feb 24 2008 // San Diego-based Barney & Barney LLC named Jim O’Connell principal. He also will serve as director of development for programs, specialty insurance solutions. In that role, he is responsible for both regional and...

Seattle Court Rules Failure to Disclose Pollution Incidents Voids Vessel Policy

Feb 21 2008 // The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle has upheld an Alaskan district court ruling that a primary insurance carrier can cancel a marine vessel’s pollution insurance policy on the basis that the insured...

N.M. Tribe Sues Regulator Over Leavitt’s Corp. Status Reinstatement

Feb 21 2008 // The Mescalero Apache Tribe in Santa Fe, N.M., contends it overpaid millions of dollars for insurance, alleging the state let an insurance agent operate after the agent was accused of submitting fraudulent documents to sell...

Marsh Report on Europe Transport Highlights Regulatory, Liability Concerns

Feb 19 2008 // A new report from Marsh’s London office focuses on the increasing problems of transport and logistics firms across Europe in coping with new categories of liability and an increasingly complex regulatory...

Barr Joins Marsh’s UK Environmental Practice

Feb 7 2008 // Marsh has appointed David Barr as a Managing Consultant in its UK Environmental Practice. He joins Marsh’s London office from Willis, where he headed up its UK Environmental Team. The bulletin described Barr as a...

Sharpshooters Target Deer in Crowded N.J. County

Jan 31 2008 // On a Maplewood, N.J. hilltop with breathtaking views of New York’s skyline, sharpshooters perched in trees took aim Tuesday at white-tailed deer, a species being crowded out of one of the nation’s most densely...

AIG to Pay $42.5M to Cleanup Pollution Left by Bankrupt Insured

Jan 27 2008 // American International Specialty Lines Insurance Co. Inc. (AISLIC) has agreed to pay $42.5 million to clean up contamination at four industrial facilities run by a bankrupt insured in a suit in which the Department of...