Source: https://www.greatamericaninsurancegroup.com/, Environmental Insider, Winter 2020 As stated in a previous Environmental Insider article, the environmental insurance industry has experienced an increase in both frequency and severity of claims as coverage has likewise expanded from its genesis in the early 1980s. Underwriters, claims adjusters and insureds face many pollution-related challenges today that had not yet surfaced […]

Source: https://www.greatamericaninsurancegroup.com/, Environmental Insider, Winter 2020 Over the years, there have been several emerging trends that have gained the attention of the environmental liability insurance industry, including an increased awareness and focus on environmental regulations as well as the continued discovery of newly emerging contaminants, both regulated and unregulated. As a result, environmental insurance has […]

Source: https://www.cleveland.com/, January 28, 2020 By: Emily Bamforth Lakewood’s surprise discovery of tetrachloroethylene underneath stone slabs at the former Lakewood Hospital redevelopment site will cost about $1.72 million to clean up, officials say. The former Lakewood Hospital site at the corner of Detroit and Belle Avenues is set to become One Lakewood Place, a mixed-use […]

Source: The Washington Post, January 24, 2020 Posted on: https://www.advisen.com/ A Northern California river has glistening red streaks of cabernet sauvignon coursing through its waters after the door of a 97,000-gallon winery tank in Healdsburg popped open Wednesday afternoon, authorities say. The wine spilled into a nearby creek and made its way into the Russian […]

A Bay Area environmental group sued some of the world’s biggest food, beverage and product manufacturers Wednesday, accusing them of polluting the world’s oceans and waterways, including San Francisco and Monterey bays, with millions of tons of plastic. The lawsuit, filed in San Mateo Superior Court by the Berkeley-based Earth Island Institute, accuses 10 of […]

Source: https://www.gpbnews.org/, January 24, 2020 By: Ellen Eldridge As claims come in from people affected by a deadly outbreak of Legionella bacteria last July, the Sheraton Atlanta hotel on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court. In the suit, the company behind Sheraton Atlanta asks a judge to obligate insurance companies to pay […]

Source: https://www.nj.com/, January 23, 2020 By: Michael Sol Warren A shuttered Trenton dry cleaning business has been fined more than $200,000 for failing to clean up a decades-old toxic mess. The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office announced on Thursday that it had won a case against Schofield Cleaners by default, after the business failed to […]

Source: https://www.wzzm13.com/, January 24, 2020 Kalamazoo County officials said Friday that per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) contaminants found at a former landfill may be seeping into groundwater outside of the zone. South Westnedge Park at 9010 South Westnedge Ave. in Portage was previously used as a municipal landfill. The city has conducted groundwater cleanups at the […]

Source: https://www.natlawreview.com/, January 21, 2020 The pollution exclusion has had a long history of being interpreted by the courts throughout the US.  Many substances have been held to come within the pollution exclusion, resulting in a bar of insurance coverage for costs sustained by policyholders addressing those substances in waterways and the air.  In a […]

Source: https://www.wsws.org/, January 22, 2020 By: Kevin Reed Michigan state environmental officials have revealed that tests near the site of a three-year toxic chemical leak at a Madison Heights industrial facility show PFAS contamination of surface water along with previously established hexavalent chromium contamination of the ground water. The Detroit News reported on January 17 […]

Source: https://www.lexology.com/, January 16, 2020 By: Stephen D. Daly, Manko Gold Katcher & Fox In December 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with support from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), held a public meeting to address the proposed listing of the Blades Groundwater Site in Sussex County, Delaware to […]

Source: https://www.reuters.com/, January 22, 2020 By: Timothy Gardner The contamination of U.S. drinking water with man-made “forever chemicals” is far worse than previously estimated with some of the highest levels found in Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans, said a report on Wednesday by an environmental watchdog group. The chemicals, resistant to breaking down in the […]