Energy company convicted of criminal Clean Air Act violations faces demand for millions in damages. Fifteen residents of Corpus Christi, Texas, sickened by pollution from a Citgo Petroleum refinery, are asking a federal judge to set up medical and relocation trust funds. Lawyers will argue for the compensation at a future sentencing hearing. A jury in 2007 convicted Citgo, concluding that its Corpus Christi refinery allowed toxic chemicals to drift from uncovered storage tanks into a nearby neighborhood for a decade. The lawyers will ask for $11 million to treat cancer or other illnesses claimed by more than 300 people, and $15 million in relocation costs for those who want to leave the neighborhood. The Center for Public Integrity
Southern California Edison requests OK to restart one reactor at shut nuclear plant. The utility’s request to federal regulators comes eight months after the San Onofre plant, north of San Diego, was powered down over safety concerns when a small amount of radioactive steam was released from a generator tube. The leak led to the discovery of wear on thousands of tubes that carry water that transfers heat from the reactor core to generate electricity. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered Edison to keep the plant shut until it could pinpoint the cause. Edison is proposing restarting the plant’s Unit 2 and running it at 70 percent of capacity for five months before taking it offline again for further inspections. Los Angeles Times
Meningitis outbreak reveals scant oversight of a drug production process. The outbreak, which has killed five people and sickened 30 others in six states, is being blamed on a steroid drug contaminated by a fungus. The solution, used to treat back pain, was made by a Framingham, Mass., pharmacy, the New England Compounding Center. Compounding pharmacies make their own products, which are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The practice, often performed in hospital pharmacies, is supposed to provide custom products for patients with special needs. But health officials worry about compounding’s risks, and the pharmacies are not held to the same safety standards as big drug companies. The New York Times
U.S. moves to shut down Internet pharmacy that distributed fake cancer drug. Officials acted against Canada Drugs, the online pharmacy and wholesaler that distributed counterfeit Avastin to U.S. doctors last year. The decade-old company has prospered by filling millions of prescriptions for U.S. customers with cheaper drugs from Canada and around the world. But the case of the fake Avastin increased pressure to rein in the sales, long opposed by the drug industry but popular with some U.S. customers seeking discounted medicine. U.S. officials asked two Internet registries to suspend more than 3,700 Web addresses owned by Canada Drugs, and have started detaining some of the company’s shipments. The Wall Street Journal
Fatal New York crane collapse leads to proposed fines totaling $75,000 against two contractors. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated after the April accident that killed a man working on the project to extend the No. 7 subway line on Manhattan’s West Side. OSHA found that Yonkers Contracting hadn’t conducted required inspections of a cable that snapped in the accident, sending a boom plummeting into a construction pit. A subcontractor, J & E Industries, was cited by OSHA for failing to employ a trained rigger in the area where the crane was used. The victim’s mother expressed outrage that the penalties weren’t tougher. “I really feel like my son was murdered,” she said. The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News
Compiled by Stuart Silverstein
