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Paradise Point, the Gold Coast suburb of Australia has been identified as having an estimated $1.4 billion worth of property at “risk” of coastal erosion or storm-surge-related damage within the next 30 to 60 years. More than 400 properties have been labeled as "high risk" or "very high risk."
Spectrum News 1 / Charlotte Scott
On March 29th, weeks after a tornado caused damage to the city of Round Rock, Texas, city leaders have released their official estimates of the damage left behind. Preliminary estimates state that 680 residential properties were damaged at an estimated cost of $32 million. The numbers came from both city officials and members of the Building Officials Association of Texas, which deployed trained and certified personnel to the impacted neighborhoods.
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A tentative ruling in favor of Stanley Black was issued on Monday, March 21, in his lawsuit against his 35-year business partner, Robert Barth. After a two-week trial, the judge ordered Robert Barth to pay back Stanley Black $13.4 million. Half of which was considered to be for punitive damages. Howard E. King, Stanley Black's Lawyer, stated that Robert Barth had taken $7 million in corporate opportunities for personal profit. Robert Barth’s lawyer, claimed that they were disappointed with the ruling, stating that the ruling is fraud both factually and legally.
Evan Didier, Flickr Creative Commons
Skanska USA Building was awarded $19.2 million from a King County Superior Court Jury. This compensation was awarded from a breach of contract complaint against the Nexus condo tower developers of downtown Seattle, Washington.
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Preston Hollow Capital LLC has filed in court claiming the U.S. bond-market powerhouse Nuveen LLC should pay $628 million for trying to coerce banks into not doing business with its smaller rival. This is the latest news on the three-year-plus legal battle that’s going to trial in state court in Wilmington, Delaware, sometime in July.
Nuveen denied in a separate filing that it had targeted Preston Hollow’s business and argued that it should not be liable to pay any damages. Nuveen is a unit of teachers’ investment group TIAA and the second-largest municipal bond-fund manager. Nuveen’s expert, contends the fund’s damage assessment is based on flawed assumptions and incorrect math. Furthermore arguing that even if jurors were to agree Nuveen harmed Preston Hollow, there’s no basis for awarding the fund more than $305 million, according to court filings.
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Florida residents conducted storm debris removal across the state for a week after severe weather on the weekend of March 13th and 14th. Personal, commercial, and residential properties were damaged, costing nearly $16 million. Marion County Property Appraiser Jimmy Cowan said an apartment complex in El Dorado had to red tag over 200 units out of 688 units.
www.GTLaw-Environmentalandenergy.com
In 2018, a comment appeared on the National Law Review Blog about the opinion of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court involving a claim by the developer of a condominium development against the City of Lowell for the operation of a landfill on the property. The Court reiterated that the Massachusetts Oil and Hazardous Material Release Prevention Act authorizes a private claim for diminution in a property’s value as the result of a release of hazardous material.
Grand Manor was remanded for a new trial. The Massachusetts Appeals Court decided an appeal from that second trial. Grand Manor Condominium Ass’n v. City of Lowell, No. 20-P-622 (Mass. App. Ct. Mar. 17, 2022). The defendant had capped the landfill and had imposed Activity and Use Limitations.
The plaintiff’s estimated permanent loss in value of about $2.7 million. Defendant’s expert estimated that the property experienced a loss of about $3.1 million. The jury awarded $1.4 million, a prejudgment interest at 12%, and attorneys’ fees of about $1.1 million.
Government of La Libertad
A landslide occurred on March 15th, in the La Libertad region of Peru, causing destruction to residential properties and several missing individuals. Peru’s National Civil Defense Institute (INDECI) claimed that the landslide was the result of rainfall. The landslide caused part of the hillside to fall onto residential properties below in the town of Retamas in Parcoy District, in the Pataz province of La Libertad, Peru. As of March 15th, six people have been reported missing. Three people have been located in the wreckage by search and rescue teams along with another 15 individuals who were trapped in the structure.
It is estimated that 60 buildings have been damaged by the landslide. Earlier this year, on February 19th, a landslide struck the town of Retamas, Peru, destroying one structure.
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A long-pending contamination lawsuit in Niagara Falls’ Love Canal neighborhood has set a court date for May of 2022. In the 1970's, the Love Canal was the location of a toxic landfill that caused health and property damage. In the early 1980s it became one of the first “Superfund” sites under CERCLA. In 2011, a sewer repair crew discovered waste in the area claiming that a containment structure built in the 1980s to store waste was leaking.
On Saturday, March 19th, a federal appeals court in New York announced they will hear arguments on whether 19 pending lawsuits involving 600 people should be heard in state or federal court. Currently, the lawsuit is set to be heard in the same location it was filed in, state court. The defendant believes that the lawsuit should be heard in federal court because the containment structure for the toxic waste was built with federal superfunds. The case is scheduled to come before the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals on May 5 in Manhattan.
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On March 19th, a home was damaged in a structure fire that spread through the roof. The fire was at a residence in the 1100 block on West Columbine Circle, just northwest of Bloomington Drive in St. George, Utah. St. George Fire Chief claimed that the gas and power to the house had been shut off upon arrival and smoke was seen coming from underneath the tile roof on the split-level home.
Firemen fought the blaze from above on a fire truck engine latter as well as below from inside the home to stop the blaze from moving down the structure. Once the fire was extinguished, firefighters pulled material from the building in an attempt to prevent smoldering and embers from reigniting the fire.
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March 18th, the National Weather Service confirmed that tornados had touched down in three Kentucky counties. The residents of the Kentucky counties are now assessing the damages from the tornados and having discussions about building a basement or a tornado shelter for protection from tornados.
March 21st, a storm struck the area of Kingsbury, Texas, just off of interstate 10 in Guadalupe County. The National Weather Service had not confirmed if a tornado had formed during the storm by the night of March 21st. One resident had a tree fall onto their home. That resident also had a trailer on their property that was turned into debris during the storm. Several residents were living in the dark after the storm as there was damage to power lines.
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2020 set a record for wildfire damage in one year. Bankrate has published statistics and these are their findings.
In 2020, there were 58,950 wildfires (320% more than in 1983 when official record-keeping began) which effected over 10,122,000 acres of property (760% more than in 1983 when official record-keeping began. Wildfires during 2020 cost California 4.2 million acres of land, 10,500 structures and 31 lives. The 7 worst wildfires in U.S. history have all been in California costing just over $32 billion all together.
Bankrate also found that more wildfires occur more often in the east and central states, but wildfires in the west on average are larger and burn more acreage. Bankrate found that the price of suppressing wildfires has increased over the years, 2020 being the most expensive year on record, spending approximately $3.143 billion dollars.
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Wisconsin State Officials are claiming that the fish inside of Black Earth Creek, Wisconsin, are testing with levels PFAS chemicals. The Department of Health and the Department of Natural Resources has released statements advising anglers to limit the consumption of brown trout from the western Dane County, Wisconsin, streams. This is the state of Wisconsin's second PFAS-related consumption advisory that was issued this year.
Jason O'Brien / Australian Associated Press
Defense troops and two navy vessels have been deployed to Queensland, Australia, to help clean up and conduct damage assessments for approximately 19,000 flood victims. An announcement of $2.2 million being paid to 5,400 of the flood victims seeking financial assistance was released on March 4th. Brisbane's volunteer “mud army” was reactivated as the clean-up process was expected to be lengthy.
Approximately 67,000 insurance claims have been filed across Queensland, Australia, and New South Wales, Australia. The Premier of Australia said she had written to the Prime Minister of Australia requesting Category D assistance for $559 million on a 50-50 basis between the state and Commonwealth. Small businesses and not-for-profit organizations would be able to apply for as much as $50,000 in grant funding. The state government estimated 6100 organizations may be eligible for the grants, so far $257 million has been allocated for those grants.
Mauinow.com
On March 4th, the building formally known as the Uncle Billy’s Hotel in Hilo, Hawai’i, endured a structure fire. The Hawai’i Island Police Department has launched an arson investigation into the structure fire. It is believed that the cause of the fire was electrical in nature and due to tampering with the electrical junction box. All Four levels of the south side of the property endured fire damages.
Robert F. Bukaty / AP
After the 11th Circuit reinstated a lawsuit against a real estate developer for allegedly landscaping over wetlands without proper permits; Atlanta, Georgia, conservationists are hoping for stricter enforcement of the clean water act. The executive director of the Center for a Sustainable Coast has claimed that a problem most environmental cases face is that they are not common to be argued for. He also stated that he is hopeful that this case will pave the way for more even-handed interpretations of a citizen's rights to challenge decisions that are viewed as contrary to the clean water act.
In 2019, the Glynn Environmental Coalition and Center for a Sustainable Coast and a local resident sued real estate developer Sea Island Acquisition for the development of half an acre of wetland on Georgia's St. Simons Island claiming that it was not compliant with the permit issued by the Clean Water Act. A chief U.S. Circut Judge stated the allegations of the developer depriving the local resident of the aesthetic pleasure of the wetlands was sufficient evidence to establish an injury.
Robbi Pengelly / Index-Tribune
One of the first wineries in Sonoma Valley was the Larson Family Winery, dating back to 1899. On March 2nd, a fire started on the 23000 block of Millerick Road in Schellville, California, damaging the tasting room of the winery. No one was injured during the fire but the tasting room has been closed for the foreseeable future. The family has released a statement claiming the fire has caused damage to both the property and the history of the family in Sonoma due to several personal artifacts being lost in the fire. The fire was put out 15-20 minutes after the fire department had arrived.
Photo Courtesy of the O'Fallon Fire Protection District
An investigation into the explosion of an O’Fallon, Missouri, home was opened by the Missouri Public Service Commission and OSHA. No one was hurt during the incident, but the explosion has left several other houses condemned or damaged. Although no cause for the explosion has been determined, Gateway Fiber stated that they had an employee strike a gas line while digging on the property adjacent from the explosion. The explosion occurred while a Gateway Fiber employee was attempting to repair the line.
ENS-Newswire.com
A complaint and a consent decree were filed simultaneously against the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) alleging that the company is liable to collect and dispense of their coal ash produced from their power generator facility that has been distributed across Town of Pines, Indiana, and the surrounding vicinity as landscaping fill. The ash contains hazardous substances including arsenic, thallium, and lead. The settlement is seen as a step in the remediation of land.
Along with the removal of ash, NIPSCO has also been tasked with monitoring the groundwater supply at the Town of Pines site. The company is supposed to reimburse EPA a large percentage of its past costs and pay all future costs incurred by EPA and the State of Indiana in overseeing the cleanup.
Pexels / Getty Images / Townsquare Media photo illustration
A national investigation into the exposure of chemicals in drinking water has listed eight sites within the U.S. to be examined. Because Paulsboro, New Jersey, was listed as one of these eight sites, residents are being invited to have their blood and urine tested.
The associate professor of environmental and occupational health at Rutgers School of Public Health and The Environmental and Occupational Health Science Institute has stated that there are several concerns about the health effects of these chemicals that have been found in the blood of nearly almost everyone tested. One issue with this contaminants is that researchers are unaware of how long the water has been contaminated and they are unaware of the health effects of these chemicals.
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