Source: http://www.scpr.org, May 5, 2014 By: Molly Peterson The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday took action that leaves Los Angeles County responsible for cleaning up stormwater pollution that flows down the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. The court decided not to hear an appeal by the county and its Flood Control District in a […]

Source: http://www.mondaq.com, May 6, 2014 By: Daniel Thompson Ground contamination in residential property is not only an environmental concern, but is also an expensive issue for insurers in Canada. The contamination often results from a leak in a residential heating oil tank. When these leaks occur, home owners invariably make a claim against their home […]

Source: http://voices.suntimes.com, May 1, 2014 By: Mitch Armentrout Sauk Village officials are suing a freight carrier and a landfill in the south suburb, claiming that chemical spills on the companies’ property contaminated the village’s water supply with cancer-causing materials. The three wells that make up Sauk Village’s water supply were contaminated by vinyl chloride and […]

Source: http://www.news-record.com, May 3, 2014 By: Taft Wireback Three months after the disastrous Dan River spill, experts say its potentially harmful coal ash is on the move in some places and burrowing into the muck in others. They say both routes could pose long-term threats to the environment, stemming from the Feb. 2 spill at […]

Source: http://www.firstcoastnews.com, May 2, 2014 By: Elizabeth Weise Chinese-made drywall used in more than 20,000 homes in the United States could have caused nosebleeds, headaches, difficulty breathing and asthma attacks in tens of thousands of Americans exposed to it, the federal government said in a long-awaited report released Friday. The drywall was installed in mostly […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, April 25, 2014 By: Amy B. Briggs, David B. Killalea , Stephen T. Raptis, Robert H. Shulman and Susan P. White, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP Why it matters A Connecticut federal court expanded the amount of insurance potentially available to an insured in a case involving coverage for 19 defective swimming pools. […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, April 25, 2014 By: Amy B. Briggs, David B. Killalea , Stephen T. Raptis, Robert H. Shulman and Susan P. White, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP Why it matters A Connecticut superior court recently ruled that numerous pollution exclusions extending as far back as the 1950s were ambiguous as to the underlying asbestos […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, April 25, 2014 Audrey Momanaee, Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP On April 22, in what is being called the “first fracking trial,” five of six jurors in Dallas  County agreed with Plaintiffs, Lisa and Robert “Bob” Parr, finding that Aruba Petroleum, which began drilling  operations in 2008, within about a mile and a half […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, April 25, 2014 By: Angelo J. Kappas and Todd Nelson, Gordon & Rees LLP “Rise early, work hard, strike oil.” The late oil baron J. Paul Getty’s formula for success may be a new rally cry for the plaintiffs’ bar. On Tuesday, April 24, a Texas jury awarded $2.95 million to a family […]

Source: http://enr.construction.com, April 30, 2014 By: Tony Illia Construction is a risky business full of jobsite hazards, from life-threatening falls to blunt-trauma injuries, but more insidious dangers exist, such as crystalline silica inhalation, which can lead to a type of cancer known as pneumoconiosis. It’s what coal miners call black lung disease, where tiny airborne […]

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com, April 30, 2014 By: Shawn McCarthy and Ivan Semeniuk Canadians face a Pandora’s box of potential environmental and health risks as the oil industry charges forward with hydraulic fracturing techniques that are needed to unlock vast natural gas and oil deposits across the country, says a new report for the federal government. In […]

Source: http://www.ibamag.com, April 29, 2014 By: Caitlin Bronson As a Colorado court rejects claims that defective drywall is a ‘pollutant,’ it may be time to reconsider how producers address CGL exclusions. Producers may need to reevaluate how they sell commercial general liability policies to certain clients in the wake of a legal case involving the […]