Acknowledgment to Great American Great American Insurance Group’s Environmental Division is pleased to announce that it has been named as a Selected Insurance Carrier for the Massachusetts Brownfield Redevelopment Access to Capital (“BRAC”) Program by the Massachusetts Business Development Corporation. The BRAC Program promotes access to private sources of loan and investment capital for the […]

Source: http://www.nytimes.com, October 11, 2006 By: Ralph Blumenthal A bankrupt copper giant facing billions of dollars in pollution claims across the nation pretended for years to recycle metals while illegally burning hazardous waste in a notorious El Paso smelter, according to a newly released Environmental Protection Agency document. The agency, in a 1998 internal memorandum, […]

Acknowledgement to Chartis Insurance An insured’s manufacturing facility maintained a series of above ground storage tanks. A leak in one of the tanks resulted in a release of a hydrochloric acid vapor cloud. Residents in the immediate vicinity, including a nearby trailer park, were evacuated and several sought medical treatment for alleged respiratory injuries, for […]

Acknowledgement to Chartis Insurance A contractor was retained to perform routine maintenance at a refinery. While replacing a steam supply valve in a critical pipe, a back draft of hydrogen sulfide gas was released and asphyxiated the employee of the third-party contractor, instantly killing him. His wife initiated a wrongful death lawsuit against the refinery […]

Acknowledgement to Chartis Insurance A “misoperation” occurred during a chemical reactor startup when a plant operator activated the wrong controls, which resulted in pressure build up in the reactor, thus activating the release valve. Both ammonia and propylene gas were released into the air resulting in nearby residents being exposed and seeking medical treatment at […]

Source: The Record (Hackensack, NJ), July 27, 2007 By: Alex Nussbaum Marcal Paper Mills Inc. will pay the federal government about $1.5 million under a proposed settlement of a pollution claim against the company. Details of the agreement were filed in federal Bankruptcy Court in Newark on Thursday, a month after the government leveled a […]

Source: BestWire Services, October 10, 2006 By David Dankwa Companies that transported hazardous chemicals to a North Carolina waste plant that exploded Oct. 5, sending a mushroom cloud of noxious gases and flames into the night sky, could find themselves defending against potential lawsuits stemming from the incident, experts say. That’s because under the Resource […]

Source: The Hartford Courant, August 14, 2008 The issue of contamination from lead bullets and shotgun pellets has been cropping up for years around the country, and there have been several lawsuits involving federal environmental laws that have prompted ranges to close and, in some cases, forced them to clean up the lead. The federal […]

Source: http://www.pottstownmercury.com, January 23, 2007 By: Evan Brandt Monitoring has found dangerously high levels of a carcinogenic chemical in the air around Collegeville, state officials have announced. The levels are higher than anywhere else in the region and the state is now trying to reduce emissions of that chemical from two local factories. The chemical […]

Source: http://articles.philly.com, July 19,2007 By: Tom Avril A Montgomery County plant spewed 2,400 pounds of toxic TCE last week, according to a revised report. A Montgomery County manufacturer allowed the escape of more than 2,400 pounds of toxic gas into the air over a 2 1/2-hour period – more than 60 times the allowed amount, […]

Source: http://enr.construction.com, March 19, 2008 Columbia, Md.-based W.R. Grace has agreed to pay $250 million, the highest sum in the history of the Superfund program, to help pay cleanup costs of asbestos contamination in Libby, Mont. The settlement, announced on March 11 by the U.S. Justice Dept. and Environmental Protection Agency, would settle the federal government’s […]

Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com, September 1, 2007 A government watchdog group is urging an investigation of a contractor at the Hanford nuclear reservation after soil contaminated with mercury was mistakenly dumped in a landfill. There have been problems in the past at the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, a landfill that holds radioactive and hazardous chemical waste. It […]