Source: Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2015 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com Federal authorities on Wednesday issued a cleanup order to the company whose underground pipeline last week spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean and marred several miles of Santa Barbara County coastline. “Our action today is to make sure the oil […]

Source: http://www.timesleader.com, May 23, 2015 By: Jerry Lynott As the crow flies, Brian Gallagher lives about 2,000 feet from a state shooting range and the sound of gunshots aren’t far off. But what’s bothering the former U.S. Navy fighter pilot is lead from the spent ammunition may have gotten too close for comfort and possibly […]

Source: http://www.natlawreview.com, May 26, 2015 A Wisconsin district court has ruled that NCR Corporation’s liability for contamination in the Fox River is limited to NCR’s share of contamination contributed to the river. In the first case to explore in depth the Superfund divisibility defense after the US Supreme Court’s decision in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe […]

Source: http://obrag.org, May 22, 2015 By: Natasha Geiling Other cities have sued over PCB pollution, but San Diego’s case is unique. In a 1970 internal memo, agrochemical giant Monsanto alerted its development committee to a problem: Polychlorinated Biphenyls — known as PCBs — had been shown to be a highly toxic pollutant. PCBs — sold […]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, May 21, 2015 Posted on: http://fpn.advisen.com The San Francisco Bay Area, like Santa Barbara, is home to a vast network of oil pipelines that could easily rupture and cause the same kind of disastrous spill that is blackening the Southern California coast. A large pipeline next to Refugio State Beach in […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, May 20, 2015 By: Gerald F. George, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP On May 19, a district court ruled that a company had established divisibility for its liability at a major downstream segment of the Fox River mega-site in Wisconsin, capping its liability for that segment at 28%. This same court had initially held that the company, […]

Source: http://www.sltrib.com, May 20, 2015 By: Brian Maffly Before Big West Oil LLC acquired its North Salt Lake refinery in 1986, the plant’s former operator dumped or spilled numerous hazardous wastes at the site, a once-common practice that became closely regulated in the early 1980s under new federal laws. Those forgotten chemical sludges have continued […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, May 18, 2015 By: Thomas P. Wert, Roetzel & Andress Recently, a Florida appellate court weighed in on the kind of evidence necessary to prove loss of use damages on a construction project as a result of delays caused by an architect’s defective design. Gonzalez v. Barrenechea, 2015 WL 1940784 (Fla. 3d DCA, April […]

Source: http://www.stltoday.com, May 20, 2015 The Granite City Council approved an ordinance on Tuesday night requiring owners of property where methamphetamine was manufactured to abate or clean the property. If owners don’t do so, the city will go to court to get an order allowing the city to abate or demolish the building, vehicle or […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, May 20, 2015 By: Daniel J. Greenberg, Smith Currie & Hancock Non-traditional project delivery methods are being increasingly used in construction projects, and these delivery methods can bring non-traditional insurance risks. Non-traditional project delivery methods may require project participants, such as designers, contractors and owners, to hold additional types of insurance to guard […]

Source: http://www.timesherald.com, May 19, 2015 By: Eric Devlin Phoenixville School District officials say contaminated soil found at the site of its incoming elementary school is being removed safely. “It’s not like some toxic waste dump,” school board member Ken Butera said at Thursday night’s meeting. Four weeks ago, environmental experts discovered elevated levels of the […]

Source: http://www.insurancejournal.com, May 19, 2015 By: Christopher J. Boggs Never let it be said that an exclusion would or could be misapplied; but the absolute pollution exclusion likely qualifies as the most misapplied exclusion within the commercial general liability (CGL) policy. Reasons for improper denials by application of the pollution exclusion are varied, ranging from […]