Latest Pollution Headlines

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

Hanford Tunnel Collapse Draws Attention to Safety, Age of Nuclear Plants

May 16 2017 // The collapse of a tunnel used to store radioactive waste at one of the most contaminated U.S. nuclear sites has raised concerns among watchdog groups and others who study the country’s nuclear facilities because many...

Top 10 Technical Fouls to Avoid When Filing Environmental Claims

May 15 2017 // Benzinger is chief broking officer and managing director at Aon Risk Solutions Environmental Practice. Claims are where the rubber meets the road for an insurance policy. For some lines of coverage, like workers’...

Global Temps Could Hit 1.5°C Target in 9 Years: Research

May 11 2017 // Believe it or not, the planet could be much warmer in the next few years, according to new research. The research, published this week in Geophysical Research Letters, indicates that Earth could be 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit...

Ohio Fines Pipeline Builder $430K for Water, Air Violations

May 10 2017 // Ohio environmental regulators have issued a $430,000 fine against a company building a natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Michigan. Energy Transfer is the company building the $4.2 billion Rover pipeline. It will...

JLT Specialty Names Nichols as Senior Vice President

May 8 2017 // JLT Specialty USA, a U.S. subsidiary of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group, announced the appointment of Grant Nichols as senior vice president. Based in Philadelphia, Nichols will focus on brokering complex environmental...

Florida to Require 2-Day Public Notification of Pollution Spills

May 5 2017 // Florida Gov. Rick Scott is poised to sign a bill that will require the public to receive notification of pollution spills within two days of discovery. The Florida Legislature passed a bill (SB 532) Wednesday that requires...

Cunningham Joins American Risk Management Resources in Wisconsin

May 3 2017 // Jeff Cunningham has joined American Risk Management Resources Network LLC (ARMR) in Madison, Wis., as director of underwriting for its managing general agency through Berkley Specialty. Cunningham leads the MGA, which...

Spending Deal Keeping Government Open Undermines Trump’s Wish List

May 1 2017 // U.S. House and Senate negotiators reached a bipartisan deal on a $1.1 trillion spending bill that largely tracks with Democratic priorities and rejects most of President Donald Trump’s wish list, including money to...

Chubb Forms ‘Custom Industry Solutions’ Product, Creates London Region

May 1 2017 // Chubb announced it has created a “Custom Industry Solutions” product cluster in UK and Ireland, which will bring together its life science, info tech, package and entertainment industry segments. This new...

Pipeline Company Investigating 19,000-Gallon Oil Spill in Oklahoma

Apr 27 2017 // A Houston-based pipeline company continued cleanup at the site of a nearly 19,000-gallon oil spill in northwest Oklahoma that threatened a local water supply over the weekend. Crews from Plains All American Pipeline were...

Biohazard Cleanups Not Pretty-and Neither Are the Costs to Insurers

Apr 27 2017 // If Peter Duncanson is on the scene, it’s probably not pretty. It could be a CSI-like crime scene with spattered blood and skin fragments on the sofa and wall. Or a trauma scene where an injured employee or animal...

EPA Says 3 Injection Wells Source of Contamination in Oklahoma Creek

Apr 25 2017 // The Environmental Protection Agency says it has narrowed the source of salt contamination in an Osage County, Oklahoma, creek to three nearby oil and natural gas injection wells. The Tulsa World reports the contamination...

Large Claims Becoming More Expensive, Complex & Global: Allianz

Apr 25 2017 // Large liability claims are becoming more expensive, complex and international, with activity increasing outside the United States, according a report published by Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty...

Managers Made Errors in Handling California Dam Crisis

Apr 21 2017 // Late in the afternoon of Feb. 12, Sheriff Kory Honea was at the emergency operations center for the tallest dam in America when he overheard someone say something that stopped him in his tracks: “This is not...

Florida’s New Tactic to Fight Zika: Release of 20K Bacteria-Infected Mosquitoes

Apr 20 2017 // Thousands of bacteria-infected mosquitoes were released in the wild Tuesday near Key West, testing a new way to kill mosquitoes that carry Zika and other viruses. The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District released 20,000...

Feds Say Chemical Cloud in Kansas Caused by Human Error, Labeling

Apr 17 2017 // Human error and labeling and design problems led to the release of a large chemical cloud over a northeast Kansas city that sent more than 140 people to the hospital last year and caused others to stay indoors or evacuate...

Duke Energy Sues 30 Insurers Over Coal Ash Cleanup Costs in Carolinas

Apr 17 2017 // The largest U.S. electric company sued 30 international and domestic insurance companies last month, saying they should cover part of the utility’s multibillion-dollar cleanup costs in the Carolinas for toxic...

17 States Sue to Halt Trump Rollback of Climate Change Regulations

Apr 6 2017 // A coalition of 17 U.S. states filed a legal challenge on Wednesday against efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to roll back climate change regulations, deepening a political rift over his emerging...

Starr’s Caporelli Joins Rockhill Environmental Team in California

Apr 6 2017 // The Rockhill Insurance Group has named Steve Caporelli to its environmental unit. Caporelli will be based in the San Francisco, Calif. office. Caporelli more than 15 years of underwriting and risk assessment experience. He...

Top 3 Causes of Global Liability Claims = 60% of Value: Allianz Report

Apr 5 2017 // Defective product/work quality issues, crashes and human error are listed as the top causes of liability loss for businesses, according to a report published by Allianz Global Corporate Specialty (AGCS). Collectively,...