Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Will Energy Firm Executives Be Sued for Ignoring Climate Change?
Jun 4 2014 // Environmental groups said executives of coal, oil, gas and other “fossil fuel” companies could be held liable and risk lawsuits if they support groups that deny climate change and resist policies to fight...
Industries Want West Virginia to Delay Storage Tank Regulations
Jun 2 2014 // Months after state officials approved a law to safeguard against chemical spills, West Virginia industry groups want some requirements delayed and some of their storage tanks shielded from added oversight. Though the new...
North Carolina Senate Votes to Make Disclosure of Fracking Chemicals Illegal
May 23 2014 // The North Carolina Senate on Thursday voted to make it a crime to disclose the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, even as big U.S. oil companies elsewhere consider releasing more information about the...
Report Faults U.S. Oversight of Chemical Plants
May 23 2014 // The government has no way of fully knowing which U.S. chemical facilities stock ammonium nitrate, the substance that exploded last year at a Texas fertilizer plant and killed 14 people, congressional investigators say....
Safety Agency to Probe Fracking Risks After Deaths of 4 Workers
May 20 2014 // The Obama administration is investigating the health risks of hydraulic fracturing after at least four deaths among oilfield workers since 2010 in North Dakota and Montana. The National Institute for Occupational Safety...
Survey Reveals Public Attitudes on West Virginia Chemical Spill
May 13 2014 // About one-third of those who responded to a survey conducted three months after a chemical spilled into the Elk River indicated a member of their household had a spill-related illness, Kanawha County’s health officer...
In Charleston, Business Interruption Losses from Chemical Spill Take Toll
May 12 2014 // Restaurants and storefronts are buzzing again in West Virginia’s capital city of Charleston, but many still haven’t filled a financial hole after chemicals sullied their running water and forced them to close...
EPA Seeks Input on Requiring Fuller Disclosure on Fluids Used in Fracking
May 9 2014 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it wants to gather public comment on whether it should require chemical manufacturers to disclose the content of fluids used for oil and gas production, a possible step toward...
Rockhill Insurance Opens Environmental Office in Chicago
May 8 2014 // Rockhill Insurance Group, a member of the State Auto Insurance Group, has opened a new Chicago office located at 150 S. Wacker, Suite 2400. Christine Triche and Michael Klima join the office as AVP-underwriting director...
Court Exempts Airlines from Developer’s Sept. 11 Environmental Claim
May 7 2014 // American Airlines, United Airlines and the World Trade Center leaseholder do not have to pay a property developer environmental cleanup costs from the Sept. 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks, a U.S. appeals court ruled on...
PartnerOne Environmental, ACE Westchester Launch New Energy Product
May 6 2014 // PartnerOne Environmental has partnered with ACE Westchester Environmental to offer PartnerOne Energy Select, a new packaged insurance product specifically for environmental energy contractors and consultants. PartnerOne...
West Virginia Judge Allows City’s Chemical Spill Investigation to Continue
May 5 2014 // A Putnam County judge has ordered a Hurricane landfill where wastewater from a Charleston chemical spill was dumped to produce documents sought by the city of Hurricane in its investigation. Circuit Judge Phillip Stowers...
BNSF Settles Lawsuit with Montana City Over Contamination
May 5 2014 // BNSF Railway has settled a lawsuit filed by landowners living near a former railroad tie treatment plant near Somers, Mont. BNSF spokesman Matt Jones told the Flathead Beacon the settlement reached last month calls for the...
The Risks of Dining Out and How Insurance Can Help
May 5 2014 // Eating out may be less work, but that doesn’t mean there is less risk, according to a new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which finds that Americans are more than twice as likely to...
AG Comes Down On Washington Business For Asbestos Training
May 2 2014 // Two Tacoma business owners entered guilty pleas on Friday in Pierce County Superior Court after Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson leveled multiple charges against them for allegedly selling substandard asbestos...
Court Revives Suit Over WWII Site Cleanup in California
Apr 29 2014 // A divided U.S. appeals court revived efforts by oil companies to force the federal government to reimburse them for the cost to clean up a Southern California site where they had dumped toxic sludge during World War II. By...
Duke Puts $10B Pricetag on North Carolina Coal-Ash Cleanup
Apr 24 2014 // Duke Energy Corp. said the total tab for cleaning up its North Carolina coal-ash dumps may reach $10 billion amid a call for national rules to regulate the disposal of the fossil-fuel byproduct. Duke plans to spend $2...
Safety Laws Still Lacking a Year After Texas Plant Blast
Apr 23 2014 // It has been a year since a fire caused a huge explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant that killed 15 people, yet companies in the state can still store hazardous chemicals in flammable wooden containers in buildings without...
Lawsuits Over West Virginia Chemical Spill Moved to District Court
Apr 22 2014 // Lawsuits against Freedom Industries Inc., whose leaky chemical tank polluted drinking water in West Virginia, were transferred from bankruptcy court to federal district court in Charleston last week to “assure...
Heavy Asbestos Fines for Hanford Contractors in Washington
Apr 8 2014 // Two contractors at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington will pay more than $175,000 in fines after an investigation found alleged asbestos violations. The Environmental Protection Agency says CH2M Hill Plateau...
