Latest Pollution Headlines

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

Alabama Environmental Regulator, 3M Reach Agreement on Contamination Cleanup

Jul 31 2020 // The Alabama Department of Environmental Management announced Friday that it has reached an agreement with chemical giant 3M regarding cleanup of “forever chemicals” at its plant in Decatur and at multiple sites...

Climate Risk Analytics Firm Gets Capital Injections from Liberty and MS&AD

Jul 30 2020 // Jupiter, a Silicon Valley startup provider of predictive data and analytics for climate risk, announced it has raised additional capital from insurers Liberty Mutual and MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, and SYSTEMIQ, a...

Plastic Pollution in Oceans Expected to Triple by 2040

Jul 24 2020 // The annual flow of plastics into our oceans is on a trajectory to triple over the next 20 years, which could add up to 110 pounds of plastic trash for every meter of coastline worldwide, a new report finds.That path is not...

Kohal Named President of Brokerage Division at Wisconsin’s ARMR Network

Jul 23 2020 // Middleton, Wisconsin-based American Risk Management Resources Network LLC’s brokerage division has appointed Kari Dybdahl Kohal as the organization’s next president.Kohal brings to the position a wealth of...

California Court Upholds Monsanto Cancer Verdict, Slashes Damages to $21.5M

Jul 22 2020 // A California appeals court has upheld a groundbreaking verdict that Monsanto’s widely used weed killer caused cancer in a school groundskeeper but the panel also slashed the damage award from $78.5 million to $21.5...

Mintz Adds Five to Insurance and Reinsurance Practice in Washington D.C., New York

Jul 20 2020 // Law firm Mintz has added a group of five practitioners to its Insurance and Reinsurance Practice.Deirdre G. Johnson, Paul W. Kalish, Suman Chakraborty and Ellen MacDonald Farrell joined as members, and Elaine Panagakos...

West Virginia Sued Over Non-Compliance of Coal Reclamation Fund

Jul 17 2020 // Environmental groups have sued the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection over what they say is the agency’s failure to adhere to federal reporting requirements for a coal mine reclamation fund.The...

Zurich NA Sustainability Head: Pandemic is a Roadmap for Climate Change Battle

Jul 16 2020 // Ben Harper picked an interesting time to start his new job as head of corporate sustainability for Zurich North America.Harper stepped into the role in January. Harper had been with Zurich for nearly 20 years, previously...

Anglo-Australian Miner BHP Faces $6.3B Lawsuit in UK over 2015 Brazil Dam Disaster

Jul 15 2020 // More than 200,000 Brazilian people and groups will next week kick off a 5 billion-pound ($6.3 billion) lawsuit against Anglo-Australian miner BHP in Britain over a 2015 dam failure that led to Brazil’s worst...

Russia’s Nornickel Denies Allegations of Cover-Up over Arctic Oil Spill

Jul 13 2020 // Pressure is mounting on Russian mining company Norilsk Nickel over an Arctic oil spill that has wiped about 17% off its share price, left it with a hefty compensation bill and exposed it to accusations of covering up the...

It Took Coronavirus Pandemic to Settle Bayer’s Roundup Suits: Viewpoint

Jul 10 2020 // In late June, Bayer AG agreed to pay $9.5 billion to settle about 100,000 lawsuits that accused Roundup, the popular herbicide it acquired when it bought Monsanto in 2018, of causing non-Hodgkin lymphoma.The settlement...

Nebraska Egg Processor to Pay $827K Fine, Make $2M in Upgrades

Jul 9 2020 // A Nebraska egg processing company has agreed to invest $2 million in upgrades to its facility to limit pollution and pay an $827,500 fine as part of a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency and the state.The...

Specialty Program Group Acquires Assets of Beacon Hill Associates

Jul 8 2020 // Specialty Program Group LLC (SPG), an operator of specialty insurance brokerages and underwriting facilities, has acquired the assets of Beacon Hill Associates Inc. (BHA), an environmental wholesale brokerage firm,...

Judge ‘Inclined to Deny’ Part of Bayer Roundup Settlement on Future Claims

Jul 7 2020 // Bayer shares fell more 6% on Tuesday after a U.S. judge questioned part of the German company’s proposed settlement to deal with future claims relating to allegations that its widely used weedkiller Roundup caused...

Care for Montana Towns Polluted with Asbestos Transferred to State

Jul 6 2020 // State regulators are taking over maintenance of a decades-long environmental cleanup in two northwestern Montana towns where lung-damaging asbestos contamination has been blamed in hundreds of deaths.The U.S. Environmental...

Judge Sanctions Mountaire in Delaware Wastewater Lawsuit

Jul 6 2020 // A Superior Court judge has ordered an Arkansas poultry processing company and two Delaware subsidiaries to pay more than $28,000 in sanctions for repeatedly refusing to provide information to plaintiffs suing the company...

Congressional Action Plan on Climate Change Applauded by Zurich, IBHS

Jul 2 2020 // A Congressional action plan for a clean energy economy is garnering a bit of praise from a few important names in the insurance industry.The House of Representatives in 2019 established the House Select Committee on the...

California Commissioner Launches Diversity Initiative, Names COIN Board Members

Jul 1 2020 // California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Wednesday announced the launched an “Invest in Our Diverse Communities” initiative to identify diverse woman-, veteran-, LGBTQ, Latinx, Asian Pacific Islander,...

Mining Groups Should Be Required to Buy Insurance for Tailings Dams: Report

Jun 30 2020 // Mining companies should be required to buy private insurance for tailings dams and their board of directors should be held legally responsible for any disasters, a coalition of 140 environmental groups said in a report...

RT Specialty Promotes Slaugenhoup to Vice President in Its New Jersey Office

Jun 29 2020 // RT Specialty LLC has promoted David M. Slaugenhoup to vice president within its Environmental and Construction Professional (RT ECP) practice.Since joining the team in 2013, Slaugenhoup has diligently worked with RT ECP...