Free Republic

Fly-tippers have dumped a "grotesque" mountain of waste in a field in Oxfordshire. The "environmental catastrophe unfolding in plain sight" is up to 150m (490ft) long and 6m (20ft) high and has appeared on a site between the River Cherwell and the A34 near Kidlington. Calum Miller, Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock, has raised the issue in Parliament, saying it was "threatening an environmental disaster". He also said Cherwell District Council had estimated the cost of removing the waste would be greater than its entire annual budget. "This is not a licensed waste site and we can just...

CVS Inc. agreed Tuesday to pay nearly $270,000 in penalties for improperly dumping photo-processing chemicals and drugs into wastewater at many of its nearly 140 stores in Connecticut, including locations in Southbury and New Canaan. According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS and its subsidiary, Connecticut CVS Pharmacy LLC, agreed to a settlement that includes paying $223,900 to the state's General Fund and $45,000 to a project to study ways to reduce storm water in sewer systems in Bridgeport and New Haven. The company also agreed to make improvements in its environmental practices. According to DEP...

CORPUS CHRISTI — A tire cleanup in Hazel Bazemore Park has turned into a bigger job than expected after workers discovered a lot more than tires. Commissioner Mike Pusley said the county has discovered that the park has been used as an illicit dumping site for years. “None of us had any idea this existed,” Pusley said. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ordered the county to remove mounds of old tires that had been used for erosion control at a ravine. The tires were placed there more than 20 years ago, by most estimates, and numbered in the thousands....

CHICAGO -- Another personal injury lawsuit was filed Monday against the Dave Matthews Band connected to an incident last summer where a tour bus believed to belong to the band dumped human waste onto a boat of architectural sightseers. The latest lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court by attorneys for Michael Scarpelli, Denise Scarpelli, Anthony Scarpelli, Lisa Panaro, and Larry Panaro, against the Dave Matthews Band and the alleged driver of the bus, Stefan A. Wohl. The suit claimed that at about 1 p.m. on Aug. 8, Wohl was driving a Dave Matthews Band bus to a hotel...