A manufacturer of cast iron pipe was fined $8 million for dozens of environmental violations and lying about numerous safety violations at its plant along the Delaware River. The company is under federal monitor for a four-year probationary period. Prosecutors sought a maximum fine of $15 million for the company, which was convicted in 2006 […]

A lawsuit accuses a tannery of contaminating farmland with a chemical that caused brain-tumors in residents of a Missouri town.  The tannery is alleged to have used hexavalent chromium to remove hair from hides, and then providing the resulting waste product to area farmers to use as fertilizer. The lawsuit claims thousands of tons of […]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is proposing to fine a chemical company $121,500 for a toxic leak that led to an acid cloud forcing hundreds of western Pennsylvania residents to evacuate. OSHA reports that the company committed 27 serious safety violations when 3,300 pounds of oleum leaked when a transfer tank overflowed because […]

Fifty-nine of 74 private water wells in Oklahoma have tested positive for total coliform bacteria, a group of bacteria that indicate environmental pollution. In addition, 17 of those 59 wells tested positive for E. coli, according to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).  The town suffered a deadly E. coli outbreak that is suspected to […]

A Scottsdale, Arizona woman was awarded $3.3 million in a suit she filed after mold in her apartment building left her permanently disabled.  The woman moved to an upscale apartment complex in Scottsdale in 2000 and within two years became ill.  The 47-year-old moved out after learning about the mold contamination from neighbors.  The building owners […]

An XL insured purchased a property formerly used as an independent testing facility for a wide range of aerospace, military and commercial purposes. The insured’s intention was to re-sell the property to a developer for residential housing. Litigation was filed by more than 90 nearby residents claiming bodily injury and property damage as a result […]

A copper mining company in Arizona has agreed to pay $825,000 to settle a federal lawsuit citing them for release of hazardous substances at one of their mining sites. The Environmental Protection Agency reached an agreement with the company requiring the clean up a portion of the mine site after reporting high levels of sulfate […]

Texas’ Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against BP for violating the state’s pollution laws. The civil lawsuit cites 46 releases of pollution at the refinery, including those associated with a 2005 explosion that killed 15 employees and injured 180 others. Unspecified monetary damages are sought for each day each violation occurred, in addition to […]

One of thirteen companies named in a 2005 lawsuit claiming the over-application of poultry litter is responsible for contamination in the one-million-acre Illinois River watershed has proposed to pay $120,000 to settle. The settlement has been challenged by the remaining twelve companies, who are demanding clarification on how that figure was determined and how the […]

A breach in a huge coal ash storage facility that released 54 million cubic yards of toxic laden ash into the Emory River in Kingston, Tennessee and a nearby neighborhood has residents worried about their health, lost property values and the slow cleanup by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The Environmental Protection Agency recently assumed oversight […]

An underground storage tank in Jacksonville, Maryland dripped about 26,000 gallons of gasoline over 37 days in this small community twenty miles north of Baltimore before the leak was discovered in February 2006. The oil company responsible for the leak is issuing each family affected a disbursement of $1 million plus the value of their […]

The owners of a small insurance agency in Odgensburg, New York are being sued for the $374,000 cleanup of their office property, a former gas station. After routine construction excavation revealed oil contamination on the property, several 55-gallon drums were found on the site. The property was remediated in 2006, and per New York state […]