Source: https://www.al.com, April 4, 2019 By: Dennis Pillion The West Morgan East Lawrence Water and Sewer Authority and chemical giant 3M are finalizing a settlement in a lawsuit over who will pay for a new multi-million dollar filtration system to remove industrial contaminants from the drinking water of thousands of people in north Alabama. The […]

Source: https://www.popsci.com, April 4, 2019 By: Alex Schwartz The effects of agricultural practices on human health shouldn’t be overlooked. Lend your “ears” to this: A new study published this week in Nature found that America’s corn belt could contribute to thousands of air pollution deaths a year. Scientists at the University of Minnesota attributed around 4,300 premature American deaths […]

Source: https://nypost.com, April 3, 2019 By: Priscilla DeGregory and Tamar Lapin Forget Pisa — New York has the leaning tower of South Street. A brand-new, 58-story condo in the Financial District is listing north like a drunken investment banker due to a faulty foundation — a defect that could cause bits of the tower to […]

Source: https://www.kpbs.org, April 2, 2019 By: Brad Racino, Bella Ross and Lauren Mapp, inewsource County officials are investigating odors that led San Diego State University to close a building on campus after faculty, students and others complained they were sick with sore throats, itchy eyes, nausea, headaches and nosebleeds. The odors arose from a chemical […]

Source: https://commercialobserver.com, April 2, 2019 By: Rebecca Baird-Remba Pizzarotti says it can’t finish the building at 161 Maiden Lane due to off-kilter foundation A Financial District condominium tower is leaning, and the contractor on the project claims the developer is to blame. The 670-foot-tall, 58-story apartment building under construction at 161 Maiden Lane is leaning three inches […]

Source: Houston Chronicle, April 2, 2019 Posted on: http://www.advisen.com Fifteen days after a fire at a Deer Park chemical facility, another fire at a chemical incident is belching black smoke into the air again. The KMCO facility in Crosby caught fire Tuesday. The facility lies a little more than two and half miles from the […]

Source: https://www.chron.com, April 2, 2019 By: Julian Gill and Jasper Scherer One person has died and two people were injured  in a fire Tuesday morning  at KMCO chemical plant in Crosby, authorities said. Several authorities including Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and Harris County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Gary Hendry confirmed the death. Two people were […]

Source: AXA XL Environmental To achieve the completion date on a school project, the GC accelerated its schedule, allowing the drywall contractor to start before the building envelope was completed. Rain damaged a majority of the installed drywall as well as the materials stored on site. This resulted in $2 million in repair costs and […]

Source: AXA XL Environmental A GC renovating a bank hired an asbestos abatement contractor. As part of their final cleanup process on a Friday, the abatement contractor utilized a high-pressure wash, resulting in saturated carpets, ceilings and walls. Materials remained saturated over the weekend while the HVAC system remained turned off. The GC was greeted […]

Source: AXA XL Environmental A GC was renovating an elementary school. During the course of work, dust from concrete cutting set off the fire alarms. Parents of students filed a claim against the general contractor for bodily injury due to fear of contracting silicosis. Although the GC was not held liable for causing a pollution […]

Source: AXA XL Environmental A GC used muriatic acid while performing concrete etching in a commercial building. The highly corrosive fumes from the acid were not properly contained and were released into the building damaging the newly installed chrome fixtures. As a result, the GC was responsible for $75,000 in property damages.

Source: AXA XL Environmental A GC removed lead-based paint from a commercial building. The contractor isolated the work areas with containment; however, the HVAC system was not disconnected. The dust generated from the lead removal operations clogged the heating coils of the HVAC system in the building. The contractor was liable for replacing the HVAC […]