Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Some Asbestos Left Behind in Montana Town Amid Move to End Cleanup
Nov 23 2015 // Federal officials say their final analysis of a Montana community wracked by deadly asbestos contamination shows a costly and much-criticized cleanup is working – even though about 700 properties have yet to be...
Brazil Slaps Initial Fine of $66 Million on Mine for Burst Dam Disaster
Nov 13 2015 // Brazil’s president slapped preliminary fines of 250 million reais ($66.2 million) against a mine in the country’s southeast where two dams burst, killing nine people and coating a two-state area with mud and...
Aspen Insurance Appoints McElroy as Global Head of Environmental
Nov 12 2015 // Aspen Insurance, the insurance segment of Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd., announced that William McElroy will be appointed global head of environmental, effective Nov. 16, 2015. McElroy will lead Aspen Insurance’s...
Volkswagen Offers Diesel Owners $1,000 ‘Goodwill’ Payment
Nov 11 2015 // Volkswagen AG, reeling from an expanding scandal involving diesel cars it has admitted it rigged to pass U.S. pollution tests, announced Monday that owners of the vehicles will receive $1,000 in what the company calls a...
Dual Commercial Hires Broomfield for Environmental Program in New York
Nov 5 2015 // Dual Commercial LLC, a specialty program administrator based in Naples, Florida, has hired John Broomfield as senior underwriter for the firm’s the Environmental Division. He is based in New York City. Broomfield has...
Dual Commercial Expands Environmental Program with Schoning in Colorado
Nov 3 2015 // DUAL Commercial LLC has named Melissa Schoning to its environmental team as a senior underwriter. Schoning will be working out of Lakewood, Colo. Schoning has more than 12 years of insurance experience in environmental...
South Carolina Homeowners Face Expensive Repairs to Unsafe Dams
Oct 30 2015 // People who live around dozens of lakes in South Carolina are under emergency orders to repair or replace dams that ruptured or were deemed unsafe by inspectors after the historic rains this month, and they face staggering...
EPA: Missouri Landfill Fire Fix to Come by Year’s End
Oct 28 2015 // A plan to make sure an underground St. Louis-area landfill fire doesn’t reach a cache of Cold War-era nuclear waste buried nearby will come before the end of 2015, an Environmental Protection Agency administrator...
Testing Shows Chemicals in Well Water Near Tennessee Power Plant
Oct 28 2015 // Albert Hudson worries about the water coming from the well on his property near the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal-fired power plant in Gallatin, Tenn. Hudson received a letter recently from the Tennessee...
Judge Claims Regulators Not Enforcing Duke Coal Ash Clean-Up in North Carolina
Oct 27 2015 // North Carolina’s environmental watchdog agency has not been trying very hard to force Duke Energy to clean up toxic groundwater pollution near a coal-burning power plant where neighbors can’t drink their well...
Safety Experts: Oklahoma Quakes a National Security Threat
Oct 26 2015 // In the months after Sept. 11, 2001, as U.S. security officials assessed the top targets for potential terrorist attacks, the small town of Cushing, Okla., received special attention. Even though it is home to fewer than...
Volkswagen Wants 350 Diesel Fraud Claims Consolidated
Oct 26 2015 // Volkswagen AG is maneuvering to steer hundreds of class-action lawsuits over its emissions-cheating software to the court nearest its current U.S. headquarters or to Detroit, its former location. The automaker asked a...
Marijuana Pesticide Flap Draws Product Liability Suit in Colorado
Oct 19 2015 // Two marijuana users in Colorado filed a lawsuit earlier this month 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...
Oklahoma Oil Company Disputing Required Reduction in Disposal Well Volumes
Oct 15 2015 // A Tulsa oil company has agreed to a technical meeting with Oklahoma regulators after challenging their response to earthquakes and saltwater disposal wells. The Oklahoman reports Marjo Operating Co. Inc. and staff for the...
U.S. and Alaska Won’t Seek Another $92M From Exxon For Spill Decades Ago
Oct 15 2015 // U.S. and Alaska state officials announced on Wednesday they will no longer seek an additional $92 million from Exxon Mobil Corp. to pay for environmental cleanup and restoration stemming from the massive Exxon Valdez oil...
Wells Fargo Insurance Launches California Prop 65 Insurance Program
Oct 13 2015 // Wells Fargo Insurance has launched a Prop 65 insurance program liability insurance program tailored to provide financial protection for product manufacturers, distributors, and formulators of products that contain any of...
Laws May Enforce Some Environment Treaties, but Not for Climate Change
Oct 12 2015 // If and when a global deal to curb climate change is done in Paris this December, the matter of enforcement is likely to be left not to sanctions, but to peer pressure. While legally enforceable environmental treaties do...
Missouri Landfill Burning Near Nuclear Waste Dump
Oct 8 2015 // Beneath the surface of a St. Louis, Mo.-area landfill lurk two things that should never meet: a slow-burning fire and a cache of Cold War-era nuclear waste, separated by no more than 1,200 feet. Government officials have...
DuPont Found Liable in West Virginia Toxic Water Lawsuit
Oct 8 2015 // DuPont Co. was found liable for a woman’s kidney cancer in the first of 3,500 lawsuits over a toxic Teflon ingredient found in Ohio and West Virginia water, but spinoff Chemours Co. will have to bear any costs from...
West Virginia Files Suit Against Volkswagen Over Clean Diesel Claims
Oct 7 2015 // West Virginia may be the first U.S. state to sue Volkswagen AG for deceiving car buyers after the Environmental Protection Agency said last month that the company had installed software to hide that its diesel engines...
