Latest Pollution Headlines

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

BP Alaska to Pay $125K Over Hazardous Waste Violations

Dec 27 2019 // BP Alaska agreed to pay a little more than $125,000 in fines over hazardous waste violations on Alaska’s North Slope, officials said.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it reached the agreement with...

New York Tweaks Clean Water Plan as Suppliers Call for More Time

Dec 24 2019 // New York would not issue violations against certain water suppliers who notify the public that they have too-high levels of certain industrial and synthetic chemicals under the latest plan to be proposed by state...

Notre Dame Fire Reveals Global Safety Lapse Over Dangers of Lead Dust

Dec 23 2019 // PARIS (AP) — It took a blaze that nearly destroyed Paris’ most famous cathedral to reveal a gap in global safety regulations for lead, a toxic building material found across many historic cities.After the Notre...

DuPont Asks Delaware Judge to Toss Chemours Environmental Liabilities Suit

Dec 23 2019 // The DuPont Co. is asking a Delaware judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming that it massively downplayed the cost of environmental liabilities that Chemours would be saddled with when DuPont spun off its former performance...

U.S. Government Backs Bayer in Bid to Overturn Roundup Cancer Verdict

Dec 23 2019 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department said a federal appeals court should reverse a lower court verdict finding Bayer AG liable in the case of a California man who blamed its Roundup weed...

Texas Regulators Want Stiffer Penalty for Owner of Port Neches Plant That Exploded

Dec 20 2019 // Environmental and watchdog groups have long criticized the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for taking it too easy on polluters — and the TCEQ has often countered that its job is to coax industrial facilities...

Steel Mill Sued over Chemical Spill in Indiana Lake

Dec 17 2019 // Two environmental groups are suing a steelmaker for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act at its northwestern Indiana facility more than 100 times in the past five years, including an August spill that killed more than...

Bayer Asks Appeals Court to Toss $25 Million Roundup Cancer Verdict

Dec 17 2019 // Bayer AG on Monday said it has asked a U.S. federal appeals court to throw out a $25 million judgment it was ordered to pay to a California man who blamed the company’s Roundup weed killer for his cancer.In a filing...

Probe Finds Intercontinental Terminals Fire Near Houston Began with Broken Manifold

Dec 13 2019 // A March fire at a petrochemical terminal that spread a blanket of black smoke across Houston began when part of a manifold, which includes a pump and motor, on one storage tank broke, according to a report by local and...

AXA XL Adds Novoa, Delaney to Environmental Insurance Team in New York

Dec 12 2019 // AXA XL has welcomed Senior Underwriters Odette Novoa and Erica Delaney to its Environmental insurance team in New York.Both have joined AXA XL’s Northeast regional environmental underwriting team and report to Hiral...

Plastics Manufacturer Settles Retired Texas Shrimper’s Lawsuit for $50M

Dec 9 2019 // A federal judge has approved a historic settlement agreement between Taiwan-based plastics manufacturer Formosa and an environmental activist represented by indigent legal services nonprofit Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid.TRLA...

Texas City Again Issues Voluntary Evacuation Order over Chemical Plant Blast

Dec 6 2019 // Concerns over air quality have prompted a voluntary evacuation order that was in effect on Dec. 5 for a Texas Gulf Coast city where a pair of chemical plant explosions occurred last week.Port Neches issued the voluntary...

Companies Face Class Action Suit Over Sugar Field Burns Plaguing Poor Florida Towns

Dec 5 2019 // For residents of the Glades, a string of poor, predominantly African American rural towns dotting the southern shore of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, the beginning of the annual sugar cane harvest in October means the...

Texas Chemical Plant Shut by Explosions, Fire to Be Rebuilt, Company Says

Dec 5 2019 // Petrochemical maker TPC Group Inc will rebuild the Texas plant shut last week by devastating explosions that ignited fires that burned for six days, a spokeswoman said on Dec. 4.The last fire at the Port Neches plant was...

County Official: No Plans to Sue over Texas Chemical Plant Fire

Dec 4 2019 // The top official of an east Texas county that evacuated 60,000 residents last week after a petrochemical plant exploded and caught fire said on Dec. 3 he does not plan to sue the company, and will leave potential...

Supreme Court Justices Question Landowners’ Claims in Montana Superfund Cleanup

Dec 4 2019 // U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared inclined to shield a unit of British oil major BP Plc from claims seeking a more extensive cleanup of a Superfund hazardous waste site in Montana than what federal...

Directors and Officers Face Significantly Higher Range of Risks: Allianz Report

Dec 4 2019 // The range of risks facing company executives, or directors and officers (D&Os), has increased significantly in recent years along with resulting insurance claims, according to a report published by Allianz Global...

Texas Plant Rocked by Explosions Was Declared High Priority Violator by EPA

Dec 3 2019 // The Port Neches, Texas, chemical plant where two explosions and a fire prompted widespread mandatory evacuations on Nov. 27 has a years-long history of state and federal environmental violations.The facility owned by...

AXA XL Names AIG’s Wilbanks as Casualty, Environmental Risk Engineering Manager

Dec 2 2019 // AXA XL Risk Consulting has appointed has appointed Sheri Wilbanks as its global Casualty & Environmental Lines of Business manager.Wilbanks will be responsible for building a global casualty and environmental risk...

Texas Chemical Plant Fire Brought Under Control

Nov 29 2019 // AUSTIN, Texas , NOV. 29 —Officials lifted evacuation orders Friday for around 50,000 people on the Texas Gulf Coast, determining a massive fire was finally under control at a chemical plant rocked by two major explosions...