Fifty-nine of 74 private water wells in Oklahoma have tested positive for total coliform bacteria, a group of bacteria that indicate environmental pollution. In addition, 17 of those 59 wells tested positive for E. coli, according to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).  The town suffered a deadly E. coli outbreak that is suspected to […]

A Scottsdale, Arizona woman was awarded $3.3 million in a suit she filed after mold in her apartment building left her permanently disabled.  The woman moved to an upscale apartment complex in Scottsdale in 2000 and within two years became ill.  The 47-year-old moved out after learning about the mold contamination from neighbors.  The building owners […]

Contradicting the National Transportation Safety Board’s report that blamed too-thin gusset plates for the Aug. 1, 2007, collapse of the Minneapolis Interstate 35W bridge, an independent analysis concluded that rusted, frozen roller bearings were pivotal in the tragedy that killed 13 people and injured 145.  The roller bearings prevented thermal expansion and caused a truss chord to fail, […]

Real estate owners, developers, and investors face many issues during property transactions. The expectation is that these properties will provide a profitable income. However, a pollution condition can wipe out any development or investment monies in a nanosecond. That’s why the real estate community relies on XL’s Pollution and Remediation Legal Liability (PARLL) policy. XL […]

An XL insured purchased a property formerly used as an independent testing facility for a wide range of aerospace, military and commercial purposes. The insured’s intention was to re-sell the property to a developer for residential housing. Litigation was filed by more than 90 nearby residents claiming bodily injury and property damage as a result […]

A lawsuit was filed on behalf of the EPA against the current and former owners of a 25-acre site in Greenwich, Connecticut. The EPA is trying to recover $500,000 in cleanup costs and has proposed selling the site as a way to reimburse the government. The property has had several different owners since the 1980s. […]

A copper mining company in Arizona has agreed to pay $825,000 to settle a federal lawsuit citing them for release of hazardous substances at one of their mining sites. The Environmental Protection Agency reached an agreement with the company requiring the clean up a portion of the mine site after reporting high levels of sulfate […]

Texas’ Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against BP for violating the state’s pollution laws. The civil lawsuit cites 46 releases of pollution at the refinery, including those associated with a 2005 explosion that killed 15 employees and injured 180 others. Unspecified monetary damages are sought for each day each violation occurred, in addition to […]

One of thirteen companies named in a 2005 lawsuit claiming the over-application of poultry litter is responsible for contamination in the one-million-acre Illinois River watershed has proposed to pay $120,000 to settle. The settlement has been challenged by the remaining twelve companies, who are demanding clarification on how that figure was determined and how the […]

A breach in a huge coal ash storage facility that released 54 million cubic yards of toxic laden ash into the Emory River in Kingston, Tennessee and a nearby neighborhood has residents worried about their health, lost property values and the slow cleanup by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The Environmental Protection Agency recently assumed oversight […]

An underground storage tank in Jacksonville, Maryland dripped about 26,000 gallons of gasoline over 37 days in this small community twenty miles north of Baltimore before the leak was discovered in February 2006. The oil company responsible for the leak is issuing each family affected a disbursement of $1 million plus the value of their […]

The owners of a small insurance agency in Odgensburg, New York are being sued for the $374,000 cleanup of their office property, a former gas station. After routine construction excavation revealed oil contamination on the property, several 55-gallon drums were found on the site. The property was remediated in 2006, and per New York state […]