Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
People
Dec 3 2018 // Rogers & Gray Insurance, a Kingston, Mass.-based independent insurance agency, has hired Ryan Brown to its management team. Brown joins the agency from Safeco, a Liberty Mutual Company, where he was the senior...
Judges Weigh Consolidating Firefighting Foam, Other Water Chemical Lawsuits
Nov 30 2018 // Creating a massive lawsuit over cancer-linked chemicals found in around a third of Americans’ drinking water got a skeptical reception in federal court Thursday. A panel of seven judges in Manhattan repeatedly asked...
Company Building West Virginia Pipeline Fined $122K for Environmental Violations
Nov 30 2018 // A company building a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia has agreed to pay $122,350 for environmental violations. The Charleston Gazette-Mail cited a consent order made public Monday in reporting that Columbia Gas...
Arkansas Plant Board Committee: Regulate Dicamba Use in 2019
Nov 29 2018 // An Arkansas Plant Board committee recommended that the state allow farmers to use the herbicide dicamba next year but extend protections to prevent the weed killer from drifting and damaging crops. The board’s...
Ironshore Enhances Contractors Ability Coverage for Pollution Incidents
Nov 28 2018 // Ironshore Environmental has enhanced its Contractors Environmental Legal Liability (CELL) program to include coverage for damages resulting from pollution incidents caused by the contractor’s work. CELL is offered on...
Proposed North Carolina Order Requires Chemours to Reduce GenX Emissions, Pay $12M Fine
Nov 27 2018 // State environmental officials have proposed a consent order calling on a North Carolina chemical plant to reduce emissions of a compound and pay a $12 million civil penalty. The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality...
EPA Warns on Chemical Found in Nonstick Coatings
Nov 21 2018 // Long-term exposure to a chemical compound currently used for making nonstick coatings appears to be dangerous, even in minute amounts, according to draft findings released by the Environmental Protection Agency. It was the...
Judge Picks First Case for Trial in Federal Monsanto Weedkiller Litigation
Nov 21 2018 // A U.S. judge overseeing the federal litigation against Bayer AG’s Monsanto unit over glyphosate-based weed-killers allegedly causing cancer on Tuesday selected the first case to be tried in federal court in February...
Ironshore’s O’Brien Joins Ascot U.S. to Launch Environmental Business
Nov 20 2018 // Ascot has named environmental insurance veteran John O’Brien as executive vice president and head of Environmental. O’Brien will be responsible for launching an environmental liabilities and related specialty...
California Judge Sets Date for Next Next Monsanto Cancer Trial
Nov 16 2018 // A California judge has granted an expedited trial in the case of a California couple suffering from cancer who sued Bayer AG’s Monsanto unit, alleging the company’s glyphosate-containing weed killer Roundup...
Jury Sides With Workers Sickened During Tennessee Coal Ash Cleanup
Nov 14 2018 // A jury has sided with workers who say they were sickened after they were tapped to clean up a massive 2008 coal ash spill in Tennessee. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that a jury found Nov. 7 that Tennessee Valley...
Arkansas Plant Board Reviewing EPA Decision on Dicamba Herbicide
Nov 8 2018 // The Arkansas State Plant Board (ASPB), a division of the Arkansas Agriculture Department (AAD), announced it has begun the process of reviewing the announced EPA label changes for the herbicide dicamba and will be...
Casualty Losses Provide Impetus for 2019 Rate Firming: Willis Towers Watson
Nov 7 2018 // Commercial insurance buyers are facing upward pricing pressure across most lines of business in 2019, driven in part by escalating losses in the casualty insurance market, according to a report by Willis Towers Watson. The...
U.S. Agencies Split Over Cell Phone Cancer Risk
Nov 6 2018 // Two U.S. government agencies are giving conflicting interpretations of a safety study on cell phone radiation: One says it causes cancer in rats. The other says there’s no reason for people to worry. No new research...
After State Ban Expires, EPA Approves Dicamba Use in Arkansas
Nov 5 2018 // A recent Environmental Protection Agency ruling clears the path for Arkansas farmers to use the herbicide dicamba on soybeans and cotton, ending a state-wide ban on the weed killer’s use. The federal agency on Oct....
Plaintiff in Monsanto Weedkiller Cancer Case Accepts Court’s Reduced $78M Award
Nov 1 2018 // The school groundskeeper who won a jury trial against Bayer AG’s Monsanto unit over allegations that the company’s glyphosate-containing weed-killers caused his cancer, accepted a court-mandated reduced...
Army Corps, Texas Officials Propose Sweeping Hurricane Protection Plan
Oct 26 2018 // Following years of research, studies and public debate, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — in partnership with the state’s General Land Office — has recommended a multi-billion-dollar project that would protect...
GenX Undetected in Bloodstreams of North Carolina Chemical Plant Neighbors
Oct 19 2018 // Dozens of neighbors of a North Carolina chemical plant had industrial compounds in their bloodstreams, but tests by state and federal health officials outlined Tuesday didn’t find the much-debated and little-studied...
Proposed Settlement of $51M Reached in Iowa Industrial Pollution Lawsuit
Oct 11 2018 // A proposed settlement of more than $51 million has been reached in a class-action lawsuit over pollution problems at an industrial plant in southeast Iowa. The Muscatine Journal reports that the settlement with Grain...
Sompo International Taps Pillion to Lead New U.S. Environmental Insurance Unit
Oct 9 2018 // Sompo International Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, has established a new business unit to extend environmental liability insurance capabilities to a...
