Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
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...
Marijuana Pesticide Flap Draws Product Liability Suit in Colorado
Oct 7 2015 // Two marijuana users in Colorado filed a lawsuit Monday 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 nation...
Halliburton Offers Settlements over Chemical in Oklahoma Wells
Oct 6 2015 // Halliburton is offering settlements to dozens of property owners after a chemical compound called ammonium perchlorate showed up in residents’ private wells. The company has offered settlements to 130 plaintiffs...
Emission Scandal Puts VW Test Site in California Under Scrutiny
Oct 6 2015 // When Volkswagen opened its gleaming pollution testing center near the California coast, a top executive from the German automaker helped snip the blue ribbon and joined a tour of a lab so advanced that VW would brag the...
Lessons from the Gold King Mine Contamination
Oct 5 2015 // On Aug. 5, 2015 an environmental contractor acting under the EPA’s authority breached a bulkhead at the entrance to the Gold King Mine in Southwestern Colorado. As a result, 3 million gallons of heavy metal laced...
Watchdog Says Corporations Say One Thing, Do Another on Climate Change
Oct 1 2015 // It’s all a masquerade. The business world has not embraced action on climate change as statements from some corporations seem to indicate. So says a new watchdog group out of London. Nonprofit InfluenceMap late last...
Zurich Announces Initiative to Fund Solutions to Social and Environmental Issues
Oct 1 2015 // Zurich Insurance Group announced that it plans to “allocate up to 10 percent of its private equity investments to impact private equity funds, currently expected to total $100 million by the end of 2015. These funds...
Duke Energy Reaches $7M Settlement in North Carolina Coal Ash Case
Oct 1 2015 // Duke Energy agreed Tuesday to pay North Carolina regulators $7 million to settle allegations of groundwater pollution at its coal ash pits and to perform accelerated cleanups costing millions of dollars at four sites. The...
EPA Finalizes $14M Plan to Clean Soil at Former Sherwin-Williams Plant Site
Sep 30 2015 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Wednesday that it has finalized a $14 million plan to clean up contaminated soil from homes at the Sherwin-Williams/Hilliards Creek Superfund site in Gibbsboro and...
Texas County Sues Automaker for $100M Over Doctored Diesels
Sep 30 2015 // The Texas county that includes Houston sued Volkswagen Group of America Inc. for $100 million, claiming the carmaker’s cheating on emission controls worsened pollution in the area. It’s believed to the the...
Tianjin Port Blast Chemical Contamination Likely to Boost Re/Insurers’ Losses
Sep 30 2015 // Contamination from chemicals is likely to increase the cost to insurers of last month’s blasts in the Chinese port of Tianjin, costs which are already expected to exceed $3 billion, insurance specialists say. While...
Car Dealers Sue Volkswagen Over Losses Tied to Diesel Cheating
Sep 25 2015 // Independent car dealerships sued Volkswagen AG in California on Thursday over losses they say they will incur following revelations that the company fitted some diesel models with software to cheat on U.S. vehicle...
