Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Brownyard Group Develops Program for Small Pest Control Companies
Sep 5 2012 // Brownyard Group, a program administrator providing specialized insurance coverage for select industry groups, has expanded its pest control program with PCOnova, a new insurance option designed specifically for small pest...
Nebraska, Iowa Officials Watch For Contaminated Corn
Aug 30 2012 // Farmers, crop inspectors and grain elevators in Nebraska, Iowa and other corn-producing states are keeping an eye out for corn contaminated by a poison-producing fungus. They’re watching for signs of aflatoxins that,...
Freberg Environmental to Underwrite New Berkley Envrionmental Coverage
Aug 29 2012 // Freberg Environmental Insurance (FEI) has formed an agreement to underwrite environmental insurance coverage with Berkley Custom Insurance Managers, LLC, a newly formed member company of W. R. Berkley Corp. In addition to...
Tennessee Valley Authority Found Liable for 2008 Coal-Ash Spill
Aug 24 2012 // The Tennessee Valley Authority is legally responsible for a 2008 accident that sent 5 million cubic yards of toxic coal sludge oozing into a small community in eastern Tennessee, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. U.S....
ISO Says States OK Optional By-Peril Rating Rules for Homeowners
Aug 24 2012 // ISO says it has received approval of its Risk Analyzer Homeowners by-peril rating rules in 13 states and has filings pending approval in several other states. ISO would not disclose which states have cleared its filings....
Homeowners Around Minnesota Lake Sue Farmers, Claiming Pollution
Aug 22 2012 // Homeowners who live on the shores of Lake Independence near Minneapolis, Minn., say a dairy farm is to blame for turning the lake into a noxious mix of pollutants. Twenty-one individual homeowners and the Lake Independence...
California Supreme Court Tells Insurers To Pay
Aug 13 2012 // Insurance companies must pay up to the policy limits for cleanup of the Stringfellow Acid Pits in Riverside County, the California Supreme Court ruled. The 17-acre industrial waste dump 50 miles east of Los Angeles near...
Groups Sue EPA Over Oil Spill Dispersants
Aug 9 2012 // Environmental groups in five states are suing the federal government, claiming Environmental Protection Agency rules on chemical dispersants used in oil spills do not meet clean water requirements. The lawsuit filed Monday...
Chevron Response To No. Calif. Refinery Fire Under Criticism
Aug 9 2012 // Investigators were looking at how a small, seemingly insignificant leak at one of the country’s biggest oil refineries quickly unraveled into an intense fire that sent acrid black smoke into the sky and hundreds of...
Washington Announces New Rain Runoff Requirements
Aug 6 2012 // Washington state will begin requiring municipalities to use “rain gardens” and pervious pavement in new urban developments to combat rainwater pollution to the state’s rivers and lakes and to the Puget...
Natural Gas Drilling Co. Tells N.Y.: Stop the Local Bans or We’ll Sue
Aug 1 2012 // A natural gas drilling company is taking a new tack in the industry’s fight against local drilling bans: It’s threatening to sue if New York regulators don’t step in and extinguish the prohibitions. John...
Environmentalists To Sue Colstrip Over Pollution in Mont.
Jul 27 2012 // Environmentalists filed notice Wednesday that they plan to sue the six companies that co-own eastern Montana’s Colstrip power plant over alleged pollution violations. The Sierra Club and Montana Environmental...
West Virginia Mine Regulators Slow on Inspections, Permits
Jul 27 2012 // West Virginia mine regulators have failed to meet internal goals for timely inspections and permits, a legislative audit concluded, but agency officials disagree with the auditors over why. The report released this week to...
Redwood City Firm Sued Over Dumping Of Toxic Waste
Jul 25 2012 // San Mateo County prosecutors are suing a Redwood City construction company they claim illegally dumped five barrels of hazardous materials in a garbage bin. The lawsuit alleges that three sanitation workers were sent to a...
Interior Plan Expedites Solar Development In West
Jul 25 2012 // The Obama administration moved Tuesday to streamline the development of large-scale solar projects on public lands by approving 17 vast tracts across the West it says has the highest power-generating potential and the...
Oil Firms, Regulators Miss Major Accident Indicators: Gulf Spill Report
Jul 25 2012 // Transocean and BP, trade associations, and U.S. regulators largely judged the safety of offshore facilities by focusing on routine personal injury and fatality data such as dropped objects and trips and falls when they...
Suit Says Hyundai Inflated 40 Mpg Claim
Jul 23 2012 // A California lawsuit says Hyundai’s Elantra vehicle doesn’t get the advertised 40 miles per gallon. Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog joined Elantra buyer Louis Bird in the Sacramento lawsuit claiming...
Tainted Montana Town Reaches Cleanup Milestone
Jul 23 2012 // Grass and freshly planted trees are sprouting in a new town park that sits atop the site of a vermiculite plant that once spewed asbestos dust across the mountain community of Libby — a welcome dose of normalcy for a...
Tainted Montana Town Reaches Cleanup Milestone
Jul 16 2012 // Grass and freshly planted trees are sprouting in a new town park that sits atop the site of a vermiculite plant that once spewed asbestos dust across the mountain community of Libby – a welcome dose of normalcy for a...
Texas Judge Rules Atmosphere, Air Is Public Trust
Jul 13 2012 // A Texas judge has ruled that the atmosphere and air must be protected for public use, just like water, which could help attorneys tasked with arguing climate change lawsuits designed to force states to cut emissions. The...