Latest Pollution Headlines

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

Company Behind Giant Florida Sinkhole Hopes it Will be Plugged by Spring

Nov 1 2016 // A massive sinkhole at a fertilizer plant should be plugged by spring, months after contaminated water and waste began flowing into Florida’s main drinking water aquifer, the company said Friday. In an email to The...

Judge in Washington Finds Railway Could Be Liable if Spills Proven

Oct 28 2016 // A federal judge in Seattle has found that BNSF Railway could be held liable in a lawsuit claiming that coal spilled from trains pollutes waterways if environmental groups can show at trial that such discharges actually...

Cancer-Causing Metal Near Wells Tied to Volcanic Soil More Than Coal Ash: Study

Oct 28 2016 // A cancer-causing heavy metal found in water wells near coal ash pits and other industrial sites is much more widespread and naturally occurring than previously thought, university researchers said Wednesday. The presence...

Oil Spill Shuts Down Pipeline in Cushing, Oklahoma

Oct 27 2016 // A Seaway Crude Pipeline Co. pipeline that spilled oil at a storage hub in Oklahoma remained closed on Oct. 25, according to a spokesman for Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners, a 50 percent owner of...

Clean-Up Deal Reached for Florida Sinkhole that Contaminated Water

Oct 27 2016 // Florida officials have reached a deal with the company responsible for a large sinkhole that resulted in millions of gallons of contaminated water pouring into a drinking water aquifer. The Florida Department of...

Ironshore Expands Liability Coverages for Designers, Contractors

Oct 26 2016 // Ironshore’s Construction Industry Vertical, in conjunction with Ironshore Specialty Casualty, has expanded its coverage for the designers and contractors sector with a new combination policy covering contractors...

U.S. Judge Approves $14.7 Billion Settlement for VW Diesel Car Owners

Oct 26 2016 // A U.S. judge on Tuesday approved one of the biggest corporate settlements on record, Volkswagen AG’s $14.7 billion deal arising from its diesel emissions cheating scandal, and the German automaker said it would begin...

Review of 14 Studies Identifies Risk Factors for Kids’ Bicycle Injuries

Oct 25 2016 // Kids of lower socioeconomic status, those riding in rural areas, and those riding mostly on the sidewalk have higher risk of injury than others, according to a new review. Not surprisingly, injuries related to motor...

Insurance Industry Urged to Weigh Shift to Intangible Risks

Oct 24 2016 // Panelists at a New York event hosted by Lloyd’s, the world’s specialist insurance market, and the American Security Project, a nonpartisan national security think-tank, urged the insurance industry to plan...

Untapped Opportunity for Sustainable Insurance Growth

Oct 24 2016 // Risk, it’s everywhere. The landscape of risks facing the insurance industry seems to expand daily. Cyber security, uncertainty around natural catastrophes, low interest rates, energy price volatility, shifting...

National E&S in California Names Skiles Account Manager

Oct 21 2016 // National E&S Insurance Brokers in Palmdale, Calif. has named Brittany Skiles an Account Manager. Skiles works with all lines of insurance including general liability, contractor pollution, professional liability,...

North Carolina Environmental Groups, Regulators Spar Over Coal Ash Spill

Oct 21 2016 // Conservationists and regulators are at odds over how much coal ash was swept away by flooding during Hurricane Matthew – state inspectors say it would fit in the bed of a pickup truck while a watchdog group argues...

Landowners File Lawsuit over 1995 Oklahoma Chemical Spill

Oct 19 2016 // Landowners in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma, have filed a lawsuit against a railroad company over a chemical spill caused by a train derailment two decades ago. The Journal Record reported that public documents indicate a...

New York to Test Blood of City Residents Exposed to Toxic Chemical

Oct 19 2016 // New York is offering free blood tests for residents of a Hudson Valley city where the water supply was contaminated with a toxic chemical in fire-fighting foam used at a nearby Air National Guard base. State Health...

Judge ‘Strongly’ Inclined to Approve Volkswagen $14.7 Billion Settlement

Oct 19 2016 // Volkswagen AG and car owners will likely secure a federal judge’s final sign-off on their $14.7 billion settlement as the automaker continues to seek regulators’ approval of a fix for 482,000 pollution-spewing...

Louisiana Chemical Manufacturer Fined $92.6K for Serious Safety Violations

Oct 14 2016 // Federal safety officials have cited a Louisiana chemical manufacturer for nine serious and two other violations, and issued fines of more than $92,000. The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health...

Insurance Industry Urged to Weigh Shift to Intangible Risks

Oct 14 2016 // Panelists at a recent New York event hosted yesterday by Lloyd’s, the world’s specialist insurance market, and the American Security Project, a nonpartisan national security think-tank, urged the insurance...

Kentucky County Completes Cleanup of Arsenic Contamination in Soil

Oct 12 2016 // The Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection says the state has finished cleaning up large amounts of arsenic in Ohio County. The Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer reports that the agency spent the summer removing...

Pennsylvania Adopts New Fracking Regulations

Oct 10 2016 // New regulations governing the extraction of natural gas through fracking went into effect on Saturday in Pennsylvania, the first overhaul since the industry took off in the state more than 10 years ago. The new rules allow...

Cunningham to Lead Florida-Based SLB Insurance’s New Environmental Division

Oct 5 2016 // SLB Insurance Group of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has hired Jeffrey Cunningham to lead its new Environmental Insurance division. Cunningham started the new Environmental division for SLB’s Wholesale Insurance Brokerage...