Pollution
What You Need to Know About
Pollution and Environmental Liability Insurance
Since 1956, RJ Ahmann Company has been a premier provider of pollution and environmental liability insurance nationwide.
Wondering if your business should be protected by pollution and environmental liability insurance?
Pollution and environmental liability insurance isn’t just for oil companies and nuclear plants. As we learn more about the environment and the effects of commercial businesses, restrictions will keep getting tighter and your responsibilities will continue to grow. Pollution insurance can protect your business in two important ways:
- First-party coverage provides you with funding if you have a spill or contamination that needs cleanup. This might be necessary if any chemical used in your business leaks into the ground on your property. Your first-party environmental liability policy would fund the cleanup effort.
- Third-party coverage protects you from allegations that a release of a pollutant from your facility adversely affected others. If your pollution affects others by contaminating the public water or air supply, third-party coverage would protect you. For example, if the refrigeration unit at your meat processing plant has an ammonia leak and contaminates the air in the surrounding community requiring residents to evacuate, your policy would pay for resulting costs and would pay damages from resulting lawsuits. Third-party pollution insurance coverage could also protect you if your product causes pollution while it’s being transported by a third party, such as a railroad.
Which businesses should have environmental insurance coverage?
A wide range of businesses benefit from pollution and environmental liability insurance, including commercial property owners, developers, agribusinesses and even amusement parks. If you operate any of the businesses below, your company should strongly consider pollution insurance.
- Manufacturing and processing entities
- Healthcare entities, particularly hospitals
- Municipalities
- Agribusinesses
- General and underground contractors
- Remediation contractors
- Disposal and recycling facilities
- Those with aboveground or underground storage tanks
Environmental property damage claims have increased significantly over the past two decades, according to Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, Vol. 27.
How does it work?
Traditional commercial general liability insurance policies do not cover pollution and environmental hazards. However, an environmental insurance policy can be tailored to your specific business and its risks. Environmental insurance policies can be customized to include coverage for pollution liability, environmental professional liability, contractors’ liability, transporter insurance and storage tank pollution liability. Environmental impairment liability insurance can be used as a tool to assure lenders supporting the purchase or development of property, or to assure potential purchasers of your company that unknown conditions are covered. When you have the right pollution coverage, you are protected against environmental claims, including pollution conditions, cleanup costs, and claims of bodily injury or property damage.
A smart solution
If you need environmental risk management advice, or if you just want to learn more, RJ Ahmann can help. With extensive experience in the industry, we’ve helped countless businesses protect their interests with environmental insurance protection. We recently assisted a client in negotiating a settlement with an insurance carrier and the Department of Natural Resources for a pipeline leak that resulted in pipeline replacement and cleanup. Our highly experienced staff will help you evaluate your exposures and find alternative treatment approaches, ranging from insurance to self-insurance. Our experts will help you obtain comprehensive, cost-effective insurance coverage – tailored for your business’s unique needs.
To ensure that you get the strongest insurance protection at the best rates, we...
- Identify your specific risks and design a program to fit your unique exposures.
- Maintain strong relationships with all major environmental underwriters.
- Have a strong understanding of the unique policy forms and modular coverage designs.
- Help you evaluate and mitigate exposures.
- Create multi-year programs for effective cost savings.
Ready to Learn More? RJ Ahmann is Ready to Help with Solutions for Pollution and Environmental Liability Insurance!