Latest Pollution Headlines

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

$76K Water Pollution Fine Against Iowa Cattle Feedlot Upheld

Dec 11 2020 // An administrative judge has approved a $76,000 fine against an Iowa cattle feedlot for violating the Clean Water Act by discharging polluted wastewater into the East Fork of the Des Moines River.Tony and Joshua Brown, of...

EPA Approves Revised Mississippi Flood Control Project Previously Vetoed

Dec 9 2020 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not object to a revised proposal for a massive flood-control project to pump water from parts of the Mississippi Delta, a regional administrator for the agency...

New Sirius U.S. Excess & Surplus Unit Begins Writing Environmental Business

Dec 9 2020 // Sirius International Insurance Group Ltd. announced its new U.S.-based excess & surplus lines (E&S) platform, called Sirius Specialty Insurance Co. (SSIC), will begin underwriting business produced by the...

Missouri Nursing Home to Pay $40K to Settle Gender Pay Discrimination Claims

Dec 3 2020 // A Kansas City-area nursing home has agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging it paid female nurses less than male nurses, federal authorities say.The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reported that Edgewood...

Connecticut Town Officials Charged in Probe of Hazardous Waste Dumping

Nov 23 2020 // Five former or current officials of Fairfield, Connecticut, are among several people who have been arrested in connection with the illegal dumping of hazardous materials next to the town’s public works garage and...

Pittsburgh Agency Admits Pumping Sludge into Allegheny River

Nov 20 2020 // The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority has admitted violating the Clean Water Act when workers illegally pumped sludge into the Allegheny River between 2010 and 2017.The authority on Wednesday pleaded guilty to federal...

Boston Mayor Pledges EV Charging Stations at 10-Minute Walk Intervals

Nov 19 2020 // The Dow Jones Sustainability Index just released their 2020 rankings, and Zurich Insurance Group took the top spot in the insurance sector.The assessment is an annual evaluation of companies’ sustainability practices...

GRS Appoints Keenan to Head Learning, Marketing Operations

Nov 13 2020 // Global Risk Solutions, Inc., a provider of claims adjusting and environmental risk management services based in Miami, has added Colm Keenan as executive vice president and chief of Learning & Marketing. Keenan will be...

New Mexico Agency Settles Gas Plant Air Pollution Case for $950K

Nov 9 2020 // The New Mexico Environment Department said it has reached a settlement with the operator of a gas plant in northwestern New Mexico over permit and regulatory violations that resulted in excess emissions.The agency said CCI...

English Court Blocks $6.6B Brazil Lawsuit Against Mining Firm BHP Over Burst Dam

Nov 9 2020 // A 5.0 billion pound ($6.6 billion) English lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP has been struck out, in a blow to a 200,000-strong Brazilian claimant group seeking damages after a devastating dam failure in...

Chicago Scrap Shredder to Pay $18K Fine and Improve Safety, Pollution Prevention

Nov 5 2020 // A Chicago scrap shredder with a history of pollution problems has agreed to pay an $18,000 fine and make improvements intended to prevent explosions and stop metallic pollution from drifting into nearby...

U.S. Officially Becomes 1st Nation to Exit Paris Climate Pact

Nov 4 2020 // The U.S. has officially become the first nation to quit the Paris climate agreement, even as the outcome of the country’s presidential race remains undetermined.President Donald Trump, who’s fighting for...

Wisconsin City’s Failure to Report Contamination Site Deemed an ‘Oversight’

Oct 28 2020 // A 2015 report identified hazardous substances on the site of the Sheboygan Municipal Armory near Lake Michigan, but contamination was only recently reported to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources at the request...

EPA Denies Ban; Permits Farmers’ Use of Dicamba-Based Weed Killers for Five Years

Oct 28 2020 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it will allow farmers to spray crops with weed killers based on the chemical dicamba that are sold by Bayer AG and other companies, after a U.S. appeals court...

Georgia County to Pay $1M Fine Over Sewage Leaks to Buy Time for Repairs

Oct 23 2020 // A suburban Atlanta county where leaky pipes keep spilling raw sewage into creeks and rivers would pay a $1.05 million fine to regulators and get seven more years to make repairs under a new proposed federal court...

Washington Developing Wildfire Smoke Worker-Safety Rules

Oct 23 2020 // The Washington Department of Labor & Industries is developing new workplace safety and health rules regarding wildfire smoke.The L&I announced the move this week in response to an increasing number of acres burned...

AM Best’s Estimates for U.S. Insurers’ Asbestos & Environmental Losses Unchanged

Oct 22 2020 // AM Best said its estimates of $100 billion in asbestos losses and $46 billion in environmental losses for the U.S. property/casualty industry remain unchanged as of year-end 2019.In a report, AM Best notes that A&E...

EPA Permit May Curb Phosphorous Discharge from New Hampshire Fish Hatchery

Oct 22 2020 // A new federal water permit for a New Hampshire fish hatchery that has been accused of polluting local waterways could cut the amount of phosphorous the hatchery can discharge in half.The permit for the Powder Mill Fish...

Greenhouse Gas Storage Project Planned for Louisiana

Oct 21 2020 // A Louisiana company plans to create a deep underground repository to store up to 80 million tons of carbon gas now released into the air by state industrial plants, a “carbon sequestration” project aimed at...

Dell Sued in Dallas for Violation of Equal Pay Laws

Oct 21 2020 // Texas-based Dell Inc. violated federal law by paying lesser wages to a female IT analyst than it paid to a male employee performing work that required substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility, according to a...