ERP - Environmental Risk Professionals

Loading & Unloading

A spill or leak of collected wastes during loading, unloading, or transporting could result in an environmental cleanup or tort liability. Solid waste can include items such as refuse, heavy metals, nutrients, oils and greases, spent materials, chemical by-products, and sludge from industrial and municipal wastewater and water treatment plants.

Hazardous Waste Management

Household, commercial, and industrial collections could include hazardous wastes that were inappropriately discarded or materials that contain hazardous components. Examples of wastes that could be in the intake materials and be hazardous include automotive care products (motor oil and antifreeze), batteries, oil, paints, pesticides, fertilizers, pest control, pool chemicals, used electronics, smoke detectors, medical or infectious waste, pharmaceuticals, industrial cleaning chemicals and solvents, lab waste, sludge, and fluorescent light tubes and ballasts. Even empty containers that contain these materials can pose hazards due to residual material. Improper handling of these materials or disposal at a landfill not permitted to accept them can result in environmental liability.

Incompatible Material Mixing

During collection, incompatible materials can be mixed in a collection vehicle through compaction, resulting in fire, spontaneous combustion, or toxic emissions. The mixing of materials could occur while collecting loads on public roadways and expose third parties to bodily injury and property damage.

Automotive Fluid Spills

Waste collection trucks contain fuel, oil, hydraulic fluid, and other automotive fluids. Spills during maintenance or fueling operations, or leaks from mounting, lines, hoses, fittings, valves, and connections while garaged or in transport, can contaminate soil and groundwater or discharge into surface waters through drains or stormwater run-off. On-site storage of fuel, oil, lubricants/grease, and automotive fluids in storage tanks (above or underground) and drums can also leak during containment or be spilled during loading, resulting in environmental liability.

Wastewater Management

On-site vehicle washing or washing down of vehicle maintenance areas or material recovery facilities generates wastewater that can contain residual debris from collected material (biohazards, heavy metals, chemicals), oil and grease, hazardous materials, and cleaning agents that have chemicals, solvents, and detergents. Improper containment, collection, and disposal can allow wastewater to enter storm drains or nearby surface waters or leach into soils and groundwater. Wastewater that discharges into surface waters can harm aquatic systems and natural resources.

MRF & Transfer Risks

Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) and Transfer Facilities can receive unwanted and hazardous wastes from incoming loads. Improper handling, storing, and disposal of hazardous materials can result in spills or leaks that leach into soil or groundwater, discharge into drains, or collect in stormwater run-off.

Processing Facility Leaks

MRFs and Transfer Facility processing equipment can include tractors, trucks, forklifts, conveyor systems, compactors, balers, and other processing equipment. Spills or leaks of fuel, oil, hydraulic fluid, or other automotive fluids for the equipment or a containment breach from on-site storage of these materials in tanks and drums can contaminate soils or enter floor drains. The fluids can also leak from delivery trucks on-premises during unloading operations, which can collect in stormwater run-off.

Illicit Abandonment

Illicit abandonment is the illegal dumping of pollutants on a property. It can become the property owner’s burden for cleanup and third-party bodily injury or property damage if law enforcement cannot locate the originator of the waste.

Improper Disposal

Solid waste collection and processing facilities generate wastes that can be hazardous and require that special disposal procedures are followed. Wastes can include batteries used on collection trucks and spent fuels, solvents, and oils. Improperly segregated and disposed of wastes can result in regulatory fines or lead to cleanup and environmental tort liability.

Environmental Pollution Liability Can Provide Coverage For

Integrated General Liability/site pollution and options to include XS, Automobile, and Workers’ Compensation may be available

Monoline site pollution liability

Third-party claims for bodily injury and property damage

First-party and third-party cleanup

Defense of third-party claims

Emergency response costs

First and third-party transportation pollution liability

Loading and unloading

Products pollution liability

Crisis/reputation management

Civil fines and penalties

Off-site services pollution liability

Business interruption expenses

Non-owned disposal sites

Natural resource damage

Claims Scenarios & Examples

A chemical spill that mixed at least two chemicals at a waste transfer station sent three employees to the hospital for evaluation and required cleanup by a professional hazardous materials company. An employee reported that he was moving a pile of debris when it began smoking. Assuming it was a fire, he poured water, but the debris started “popping and smoking” more. Firefighters performed reconnaissance on the site and reported one 55-gallon drum and one 5-gallon pail in the pile of debris emitting white smoke. A fire department team, dressed in full protective hazardous materials suits, investigated the situation. Firefighters discovered that the 55-gallon drum had a label identifying the chemical inside as sodium hydroxide. After analyzing evidence at the hazmat command post, the fire department determined that the 5-gallon pail contained calcium hypochlorite. The department also learned that the calcium hypochlorite had leaked into the large debris piles, causing the chemical reaction. A professional hazardous materials decontamination company was used to remove the debris piles from the building.

Hazardous materials teams from several fire departments responded to a chemical spill inside a recycling and transfer station. Transfer station employees were using a piece of heavy equipment to push a load of garbage into a hopper and saw a vapor cloud form. The cloud of fumes was likely caused by a corrosive chemical that had been dumped in with garbage. Tests determined that the chemical was potassium hydroxide, a corrosive agent with various industrial uses. Firefighters located two five-gallon plastic buckets with just a few ounces of potassium hydroxide in the area where the fumes were seen. The chemical was likely mixed in with waste delivered by a commercial garbage truck. The county hired a contractor to properly remove and dispose of the materials.

A garbage truck crashed, spilling trash all over the side of the road and into a creek. Even after cleanup crews left that evening, trash remained in the creek. Community members claimed the cleanup crew removed most of the trash from the actual accident site but left the trash that was swept down the creek. In response, the waste haulers planned to send a cleanup crew from an environmental services company to clean up the trash left behind, which would take days to clean up.

At a transfer station, vandals littered an area with debris and overturned drums of chemicals and maintenance fluids stored at the site. The vandalism went undetected for more than a week. The contents of the drums seeped into on-site and off-site soils and contaminated nearby groundwater and residential wells. Costs for property damage claims from nearby residents and for soil and groundwater cleanup exceeded $500,000.

A waste truck leaving an industrial park area with an unsecured load created a hazmat situation, closing multiple roads. The truck carrying waste motor oil leaked the substance, impacting approximately five miles of roadway. An environmental cleanup crew was required to perform the cleanup, and the truck driver received state and federal citations for having an unsecured load.

A municipal garbage company contracted for waste pickup and composting services with a public entity. While loading waste from a dumpster on a commercial property, a container with an unknown liquid was encountered, resulting in a spill from the insured’s vehicle onto the pavement and into a storm drain. Even though the waste collection employee acted quickly to deploy a spill kit, the quantity of the material was too great. It resulted in a release that impacted the soil around the vehicle and the adjacent storm drain.

The hydraulic fluid line of a trash truck ripped open, spilling gallons of fluid into sewer drains leading to a nearby river. Police were notified the trash truck malfunctioned, which caused the fluid line to sever and pour onto streets heading westbound toward the river. An estimated 5 to 10 gallons of fluid were displaced. A total of nine sewer drains leading to the river were affected, and there was “obvious contamination” in the river, according to the police. An environmental service company responded quickly and prevented the sewers from allowing more fluid to flow into the river. Crews then attempted to contain the fluid in the river using a containment boom and began the cleanup process. The State’s Department of Environmental Protection and the Environmental Protection Agency were notified. The waste collection company worked closely with state and local authorities to complete the cleanup.

Property Types

Solid Waste Management

Environmental Exposures May Include