Source: https://www.fireengineering.com/, August 11, 2020 By: Julio Cortez and Nathan Ellgren A natural gas explosion destroyed three row houses in Baltimore on Monday morning, killing a woman and trapping other people in the debris. At least seven people were seriously injured, and firefighters were searching for more survivors. Dozens of firefighters converged on the piles of rubble. A fourth […]

Source: https://www.natlawreview.com/, August 10, 2020 Many utilities with historical coal-fired power plants are confronting increased regulatory scrutiny relating to the storage of coal combustion residuals (CCRs, also known as coal ash).1 Now, those utilities (and other companies who have stored CCRs) are facing a new liability exposure in the form of bodily injury litigation. This alert […]

Source: Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), August 9, 2020 Posted on: https://www.advisen.com/ New Jersey will likely pull in another $14.8 million this year as part of a long-running lawsuit against polluters statewide, which has now earned more than $369 million overall to help pay cleanup costs. Two new settlements were announced Monday by the state Department of […]

Source: https://www.insurancejournal.com/, August 7, 2020 Residents near a middle Georgia power plant are suing Georgia Power Co., alleging the plant is poisoning their well water. The suit filed Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court alleges the electric utility has illegally released toxic heavy metals from coal ash at Plant Scherer into groundwater. Georgia Power is […]

Source: https://www.cnn.com/, August 7, 2020 By: Maggie Fox The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it has closed several buildings it leases in Atlanta because Legionella bacteria have been found in their water systems — bacteria that likely grew because of the prolonged pandemic shutdown. It’s a problem that people across the country need to […]

Source: https://www.knau.org/, August 6, 2020 A contractor repairing a sewer main in Sedona accidentally spilled up to 20,000 gallons of raw sewage into Oak Creek Tuesday evening. It occurred along State Route 179 and gushed into the creek at about 150 gallons per minute. The spill was contained and the immediate area was disinfected by […]

Source: https://www.theledger.com/, August 5, 2020 By: Kathy Leigh Berkowitz The investigation and cleanup of Winter Haven Hospital’s diesel fuel release into Lake Martha is ongoing, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection reported Wednesday. A reported amount of 491 gallons of diesel was spilled into the lake when the hospital’s generator fuel valve malfunctioned in mid-July, leaving […]

Source: https://www.everythinglubbock.com/, August 4, 2020 By: Allysa Tellez On Tuesday, the U.S. Air Force began field work to investigate chemicals found in water near the former Reese Air Force Base. From 1970 until the base closure in 1997, Reese and many other Air Force bases trained their firefighters to extinguish air craft fires using firefighting […]

Source: August 5, 2020 By: Timothy B. Wheeler It’s been a slog, but efforts are making headway to rid the Anacostia River of long-banned toxic chemicals that make it unsafe to eat many locally caught fish. After years of sampling and studies, District of Columbia officials have proposed tackling 11 hot spots of contamination in […]

Source: https://www.agweb.com/, August 4, 2020 By: Sonja Begemann Bayer recently announced its intent to settle all Roundup, dicamba drift and Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) water litigation cases between $10.1 and $10.9 billion. The company says this settlement is not an admission of fault, but rather a cost-effective way to end the “distraction.” “The decision to resolve […]

Source: https://www.businessinsurance.com/, August 3, 2020 By: Judy Greenwald A Travelers Cos. Inc. unit is not obligated to defend a trucking company for the damage caused by a hydrochloric acid cloud because of a pollution exclusion in its coverage, a federal appeals court said Friday, in affirming a lower court ruling. The plaintiff in the case, […]

Source: Mondaq Business Briefing, August 3, 2020 Posted on: https://www.advisen.com/ The development of drone technology is beginning to touch on a wide range of industries, sectors and aspects of life. Significant media attention has been dedicated both to beneficial uses of drones, such as unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) military reconnaissance missions, as well as the […]