Source: http://www.detroitnews.com, February 17, 2015 By: David Pitt From Washington state to North Carolina, federal lawsuits are challenging the efficient, profitable livestock industry to change its ways. The arguments found in the suits are based on studies that increasingly show the impact phosphorous, nitrate and bacteria from fertilizer and accumulated manure have on lakes and […]

Source: http://www.mlive.com, February 12, 2015 By: Will Forgrave In addition to paying roughly $65,000 in fines and cleanup costs associated with a May 2014 oil spill in the Grand River, a Jackson company is working to make sure a similar accident doesn’t happen again, state officials said. About 800 gallons of liquid including motor oil […]

Source: http://www.northjersey.com, February 11, 2015 By: James M. O’Neill In an acknowledgment that the Hackensack River remains seriously polluted with a century of industrial waste, the federal government will consider adding the river to the federal Superfund list, a program reserved for the country’s most contaminated sites. Despite recent improvements in the river’s health, research […]

Source: http://www.ashlandwi.com, February 12, 2015 By: Rick Olivo The City of Ashland and Xcel Energy/Northern States Power-Wisconsin (NSP) will face each other in Federal Court in March after efforts to mediate a lawsuit to determine who should bear financial responsibility for the Lakefront Superfund site proved fruitless. According to a news release issued by Ashland […]

Source: http://www.wsbtv.com, February 11, 2015 By: Jodie Fleischer Georgia taxpayers could be on the hook for an expensive environmental cleanup after a local business spilled a thick oily sludge and then skipped town. The sludge has dripped from a drainage pipe into a small creek that flows just 1,000 feet from the Chattahoochee River. Chattahoochee Riverkeeper […]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com, February 13, 2015 By Eriq Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter The Walt Disney Company has submitted a settlement to end a six-year-old lawsuit from an environmental watchdog over water pollutant discharges at its motion picture studio lot in Burbank, California. The Mickey Mouse company is admitting no liability but has agreed to measures to […]

Source: http://www.insurancejournal.com, January 12, 2015 By: Andrea Wells With construction activity picking up steam all across the nation, insurers are expressing concern over how the construction sector will meet the growing demand for qualified labor. Insurers are concerned not only with the shortage of new workers but also with the aging of the current construction […]

Source: http://www.agriview.com, February 12, 2015 By: Lynn Grooms At the end of December 2014, the Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed a court of appeals decision, holding that manure that contaminates a well or aquifer is a “pollutant,” and therefore is not covered under a farm’s general liability insurance policy. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling in Wilson […]

Source: http://www.agriculture.com, February 10, 2015 By: Daniel Looker When Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey joined about 80 growers and staffers at the Crop Production Services meeting in Wall Lake, Iowa Tuesday, he was at ground zero of what he called “this little lawsuit thing that’s out there” —the Des Moines Water Works notification that […]

Source: http://www.globest.com, February 10, 2015 By: John Insall With the retail industry going through a lot of flux these days, many shopping centers have been, and continue to be, targets for acquisition, redevelopment or repositioning.  Because many shopping centers have had a dry-cleaner tenant on site at one point or another, releases of perchloreoethylene (PCE) […]

Source: http://ksmu.org, February 10, 2015 By: Scott Harvey Springfield and Kansas City will receive more than $38 million to clean up contaminated soil and water as part of record national environmental bankruptcy settlement. Attorney General Chris Koster made the announcement Tuesday morning from the former Kerr-McGee plant in northwest Springfield. From 1907-2003, the site was […]

Source: http://xlgroup.com As 2015 begins, the outlook for the commercial real estate industry looks strong with interest rates continuing to be favorable. The volume of real estate transactions is expected to continue where it left off in 2014.  Property buyers, developers, and real estate managers will continue to compete for prized properties at highly valued […]