Source: http://whowhatwhy.com, July 14, 2014 By: Les Neuhaus It’s cost $40 billion so far to clean up America’s biggest nuclear waste site—half the size of Rhode Island—and it’s going to take another 40 years and $100 billion to finish the job. In the meantime, workers from the Hanford nuclear site in Washington State are still […]

Source: http://www.adn.com, July 14, 2014 By: Dermot Cole While the state has agreed to pay up to $585,000 for preliminary engineering and design to expand a water utility near the shuttered North Pole refinery, it remains locked in a three-way court fight with the past and present refinery owners over spilled sulfolane. The state blames […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, July 11, 2014 By: Steven R. Inouye and Arthur Schwartz, Gordon & Rees LLP The California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, held an insurer had no duty to defend a steel subcontractor because its installation of defective tie hooks did not constitute “property damage” under a commercial general liability (CGL) policy, even […]

Source: Inside EPA Weekly Report, July 11, 2014 Posted on: http://fpn.advisen.com Appellate court judges at June 26 oral arguments were dismissive of EPA policy arguments that the agency will face tougher challenges in achieving cleanups at Superfund sites unless the court clearly rules that parties who sign consent agreements with the agency are barred from […]

Read here about a naturally occurring asbestos that has been found in rocks near a housing development in Washington state.

Source: http://www.news-gazette.com, July 11, 2014 By: Tracy Moss The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has decided to remove contaminated soil around 29 homes south of Tilton that have tested positive for high levels of lead and arsenic that likely drifted by wind and rain from a nearby zinc smelter site. The federal agency plans to dig […]

Source: http://members.jacksonville.com, July 10, 2014 Environmental contractors are back in Brunswick this week putting down more test wells to determine how far contamination from Hercules Inc.’s former operation has spread. The groundwater beneath the sprawling chemical plant a few hundred yards from the marsh has been found to contain a number of pollutants, most notably […]

Source: http://www.news-gazette.com, July 11, 2014 By: Patrick Wade Fed up with the state agency, Champaign residents are now looking to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address their concerns about toxic waste in their neighborhood. They’re also hoping that the chemicals they suspect remain under their homes don’t end up above the Mahomet Aquifer. Their […]

Source: http://www.telegram.com, July 13, 2014 By: Aaron Nicodemus Can asbestos-laden dust, brought home day after day for 35 years on the work clothes of your loved one, cause you to get cancer? That is the thrust of a civil lawsuit brought in March against Norton Co. (now Saint-Gobain) in Middlesex Superior Court by Joan A. […]

Source: http://www.jdsupra.com, July 11, 2014 By: James Earle, Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP In the case of Beacon Residential Community Association v. Skidmore Owings and Merrill et. al. (July 3, 2014, S208173) Cal.4th, a condominium homeowners association, sued the developer of the project and the project architect for construction defects caused by negligent architectural design […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, July 9, 2014 By: Carl A. Salisbury, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Following the March 2014 Alabama Supreme Court’s decision in Owners v. Jim Carr Homebuilders that faulty workmanship can be a covered “occurrence” under a contractor’s Commercial General Liability policy, the carrier moved for rehearing.  The Supreme Court has now ruled on that motion. […]

Source: http://www.eenews.net, July 10, 2014 By: Jeremy P. Jacobs A trend has emerged at the Supreme Court that could establish important precedents for environmental litigation: a concern among the justices about lawsuits filed beyond legal deadlines. Last term, the court struck down claims from North Carolina landowners seeking damages for groundwater contamination because their lawsuit […]