Source: http://www.lexology.com, April 25, 2014 By: Amy B. Briggs, David B. Killalea , Stephen T. Raptis, Robert H. Shulman and Susan P. White, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP Why it matters A Connecticut federal court expanded the amount of insurance potentially available to an insured in a case involving coverage for 19 defective swimming pools. […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, April 25, 2014 By: Amy B. Briggs, David B. Killalea , Stephen T. Raptis, Robert H. Shulman and Susan P. White, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP Why it matters A Connecticut superior court recently ruled that numerous pollution exclusions extending as far back as the 1950s were ambiguous as to the underlying asbestos […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, April 25, 2014 Audrey Momanaee, Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP On April 22, in what is being called the “first fracking trial,” five of six jurors in Dallas  County agreed with Plaintiffs, Lisa and Robert “Bob” Parr, finding that Aruba Petroleum, which began drilling  operations in 2008, within about a mile and a half […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, April 25, 2014 By: Angelo J. Kappas and Todd Nelson, Gordon & Rees LLP “Rise early, work hard, strike oil.” The late oil baron J. Paul Getty’s formula for success may be a new rally cry for the plaintiffs’ bar. On Tuesday, April 24, a Texas jury awarded $2.95 million to a family […]

Source: http://enr.construction.com, April 30, 2014 By: Tony Illia Construction is a risky business full of jobsite hazards, from life-threatening falls to blunt-trauma injuries, but more insidious dangers exist, such as crystalline silica inhalation, which can lead to a type of cancer known as pneumoconiosis. It’s what coal miners call black lung disease, where tiny airborne […]

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com, April 30, 2014 By: Shawn McCarthy and Ivan Semeniuk Canadians face a Pandora’s box of potential environmental and health risks as the oil industry charges forward with hydraulic fracturing techniques that are needed to unlock vast natural gas and oil deposits across the country, says a new report for the federal government. In […]

Source: http://www.ibamag.com, April 29, 2014 By: Caitlin Bronson As a Colorado court rejects claims that defective drywall is a ‘pollutant,’ it may be time to reconsider how producers address CGL exclusions. Producers may need to reevaluate how they sell commercial general liability policies to certain clients in the wake of a legal case involving the […]

Source: http://www.stltoday.com, April 29, 2014 By: Blythe Bernhard More than 40 years after 43,000 tons of radioactive material were illegally dumped at the West Lake Landfill, Missouri’s attorney general wants the hauling routes tested for contamination. Koster sent a letter Tuesday to the Environmental Protection Agency calling for radiation testing in the communities where trucks […]

Read here about fines that have been proposed for West Virginia University for hazardous waste violations.

Source: Trenton Times (NJ), April 28, 2014 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com A change located deep inside New Jersey’s proposed budget for the 2015 fiscal year appears to allow the state to divert money paid by corporate polluters to compensate communities for assets damaged by oil and chemical contamination. With the principal defendant in the state’s lawsuit […]

Read here about North Dakota’s plans to restore land that was damaged by oil spilled as a result of a pipeline break.

Source: The Charleston Gazette (WV), April 28, 2014 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com A federal judge has ruled that Alpha Natural Resources is illegally discharging excess levels of toxic selenium from a Raleigh County coal-slurry impoundment, in a case that illustrates a potentially major flaw in a U.S. government pollution settlement with the coal giant. U.S. District […]