Source: http://www.lexology.com, June 14, 2013 By: Wiley Rein LLP Applying Nevada law, a federal district court has held that an insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify claims alleging damage from design defects in houses constructed by the insureds due to the policy’s professional services exclusion. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. […]

Source: Greeley Tribune (CO), June 18, 2013 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com PDC Energy on Monday formally agreed to pay $35,000 in response to February’s 30-hour, 84,000-gallon fracking flow back fluid spill north of Windsor. During the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s meeting in Grand Junction, PDC offered to go above and beyond an otherwise minor […]

Source: Ventura County Star (CA), June 18, 2013 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com Concerned that proposals to identify and monitor chemicals injected into oil wells may focus too narrowly on hydraulic fracturing, a Senate committee Tuesday will look more broadly into all drilling techniques designed to stimulate oil recovery. Specifically, the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee […]

Read here about strict fracking regulations that have been signed into law by Illinois’ governor.

Read here about a study being done on the effects of shale gas drilling on water quality that will not be complete until 2016.  

Source: http://www.newsobserver.com, June 19, 2013 By: John Murawski A Chapel Hill advocacy group is threatening to sue Duke Energy Progress over alleged contamination of public water from coal ash pits, a strategy designed to prompt North Carolina regulators to take legal action again the power company. The Southern Environmental Law Center said Wednesday it is […]

Read here about lawsuits that have been filed by environmentalists as a result of water pollution from reclaimed mine sites.  

Source: http://www.lexology.com, June 17, 2013 By: Gerard M. Giordano, Cole Schotz Meisel Forman & Leonard PA In EPEC Polymers, Inc. v. NL Industries Inc., Civ. Action No. 12-3842 (D.N.J. May 24, 2013), defendant NL Industries Inc. owned property on one side of the Raritan River, where it produced and discharged waste to the river. Plaintiff […]

Source: http://www.mondaq.com, June 19, 2013 By: Edmund Kneisel and Carl A. Salisbury, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP On June 4, 2013, the Connecticut Supreme Court joined a growing number of state high courts to rule that faulty workmanship on a construction project can be covered by commercial general liability insurance policies. The case is Capstone […]

Source: http://www.mondaq.com, June 19, 2013 By: Stephen Berlin and Richard L. Sieg, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. must pay $81.6 Million to the United States government after pleading guilty to criminal charges of mismanagement of hazardous waste. The criminal charge related to the negligent management of hazardous waste at many facilities. This […]

Source: http://www.kansascity.com, June 20, 2013 By: Kevin Collison Ash Grove Cement has agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine and upgrade pollution controls at its plants in eight states, which should reduce its harmful atmospheric emissions by more than 17,000 tons a year, according to the U.S. Justice Department. In a consent agreement announced this […]

Source: Arkansas Times, May 23, 2013 By: Max Brantley Fort Smith residents have filed a lawsuit over chemical contamination of the groundwater in the neighborhood of Whirlpool’s now-closed refrigerator factory in Fort Smith. Here’s some good background from The City Wire, a Northwest Arkansas digital news site. It recently reported: Documents reviewed by The City […]