Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Judge Orders North Carolina-Based Pork Producer to Clean Up Water Pollution
Dec 8 2017 // A major pork producer must live up to an agreement it signed 11 years ago and work on cleaning up water pollution tied to almost a dozen industry-scale hog operations, a federal judge ruled this week. Murphy-Brown LLC must...
Monsanto Moves to Stop Arkansas from Banning its Dicamba Weed Killer
Dec 8 2017 // Monsanto has asked a judge to prevent Arkansas from enforcing a proposal going before lawmakers next week that would ban the use of a weed killer that farmers in several states have said drifts onto their crops and causes...
EPA Won’t Require Mining Firms to Prove Cleanup Costs
Dec 5 2017 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said last Friday it would not act on a proposal to require hardrock mining companies to show they can afford to clean up their sites. “EPA is confident that modern industry...
3M Says it Underreported Chemical Discharge in Tennessee River
Dec 4 2017 // For more than three years, 3M Co. underreported its discharge of a class of potentially toxic chemicals into the Tennessee River by a factor of 1,000, according to a letter sent by a 3M official to regulators at the...
Ironshore’s Boren, President of U.S. Field Operations, Retiring; Frediani to Succeed
Nov 30 2017 // Ironshore Inc. announced that industry veteran Joseph L. Boren, president of U.S. Field Operations and a noted environmental risk expert, will retire as of year-end 2017. Boren’s role as president of U.S. Field...
Insurers’ Asbestos Payments in 2016 Topped $3 Billion
Nov 30 2017 // While U.S. asbestos-related incurred losses dropped in 2016, property/casualty insurers’ payments for asbestos claims grew 9 percent and hit $3.2 billion for the year, a new A.M. Best report concludes. The $3.2...
New Sensors Tracking Earthquakes Across Texas
Nov 29 2017 // Note: This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune. Three years ago, a series of quakes rattled North Texas — and some residents’ nerves. Larry Walden, a Parker County commissioner, remembers a public...
Michigan, Enbridge Reach Deal to Boost Pipeline Safety
Nov 29 2017 // Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Canadian oil transport company Enbridge Inc. announced a timeline for determining the future of twin pipelines beneath the channel where Lakes Huron and Michigan converge. Options include...
Safety Concerns Remain at New Mexico Nuclear Waste Storage Site
Nov 29 2017 // A federal nuclear review panel still has some safety concerns about Los Alamos National Laboratory’s new multimillion-dollar storage facility for radioactive waste. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in...
Terminix Fined $9.2M for Pesticide Use that Poisoned Delaware Family
Nov 29 2017 // A pest control company will pay more than $9 million in criminal fines tied to the use of a banned pesticide that sickened a Delaware family on vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2015. The News Journal of Wilmington...
Smith Named President of Ironshore Environmental, Replacing O’Brien
Nov 21 2017 // Ironshore Inc. announced that Toby Smith has been appointed president of Ironshore Environmental. Smith assumes the role from John O’Brien, who recently left recently the company to pursue new opportunities. Smith...
Pen Underwriting Builds on QBE Partnership with Irish P/C Capacity Deal
Nov 20 2017 // Pen Underwriting has extended its strategic relationship with QBE into the Republic of Ireland, with a new property & casualty capacity partnership in the highly specialist area of hazardous goods & environmental...
Chicken Processor Settles Florida Water Pollution Suit for $1.4M
Nov 17 2017 // A major chicken processing plant that has been cited for polluting the Suwannee River settled a lawsuit on Wednesday that was brought by environmental groups in Florida. Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. settled the suit with...
Trade Groups Push for National Labeling Law to Override States’ Requirements
Nov 16 2017 // The Grocery Manufacturers Association and dozens of other trade groups are pushing for a federal law that could override state ingredient-disclosure rules and warning labels, including California’s landmark...
North Carolina Environmental Officials to Take Action Over GenX Spill
Nov 15 2017 // The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality says a spill resulting in an increase of toxic chemical levels in a river hadn’t been reported by a chemical company until regulators approached. The StarNews...
Austin American-Statesman: Texas Has 100s of Substandard Dams in Populated Areas
Nov 14 2017 // The earthen dam on the outskirts of Georgetown in Texas’ Williamson County certainly does not look flimsy. The Austin American-Statesman reports at 35 feet high and nearly a third of a mile long, it has done a...
New Phase in California Wildfire Cleanup: Clearing Ruins
Nov 13 2017 // Rumbling bulldozers and front-loaders have started scraping up the ash, charred wood and crumbled bricks and concrete left from thousands of homes and buildings destroyed by blazes in California wine country, launching a...
Special Reuters Report: The Path to Monsanto’s Weed-Killer Crisis
Nov 9 2017 // In early 2016, agribusiness giant Monsanto faced a decision that would prove pivotal in what since has become a sprawling herbicide crisis, with millions of acres of crops damaged. Monsanto had readied new genetically...
State Sues Gas Pipeline Developer over Pollution Violations in Ohio
Nov 6 2017 // Ohio is suing the company building a $4.2 billion natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Michigan over what it says are numerous water pollution violations during construction. The lawsuit says work on the Rover...
Despite Earthquake Risk, UK Ready to Begin Fracking – Again
Nov 6 2017 // Six years after Britain’s first fracking operation was stymied by earth tremors, its shale gas industry is poised to try again with a technology that could transform the UK gas market and drastically reduce its...
