Tag: illicit abandonment

  • Illicit Abandonment

    environmental Strategist®, between the lines:  Illicit Abandonment is an environmental exposure, which most commercial real estate lessors don’t think about.

    Let me digress, back in 2008 when the economy tanked, we received a call from an insurance agent who explained his client had a leased facility and the tenants went out of business.  When the client went to inspect their property, they found raw materials stored in 55 gallon drums, totes and other storage containers, which were left behind by the bankrupt tenant.  None of the containers were leaking or causing an environmental liability, but to rent the building out the owner had to get rid of the raw materials and it cost more than $80,000.  That is a simple example of illicit abandonment and this exposure can be covered with pollution liability insurance.

    The article below talks about refurbishing of containers, such as 55 gallon drums, and the environmental exposures it creates for workers and neighbors to business those refurbish containers.  The article also talks about how most containers they receive have some residual product left in the containers.

    Photo credit: www.jabat.com

    When you see a facility like the one in this picture, which stores old containers outside over an unsealed surface, over time residuals will leak out and contaminate the ground and ground water.  Under federal law the owner of the property is ultimately responsible for the environmental condition of their property.  What if the contamination migrates onto a neighboring property?

    What the article does not talk about is the huge environmental exposure storage and use of 55 gallon drums, totes, buckets… creates for businesses that use them.  How does the business buy the raw materials; FOB point of shipment, or FOB point of delivery?  Do they store them in a secure area with secondary containment?

    As your client’s professional risk manager, do you go out and inspect their rental properties to make sure a tenant is not creating an environmental exposure for your insured?  What is the tenant’s strategy to meet the environmental indemnification contained in the lease agreement they signed?

    Is the tenant’s financial assurance strategy to go out of business if they create an environmental liability, and leave the property owner with an illicit abandonment exposure?

    Working with Environmental Risk Managers we can coach you and your client’s on better managing and transferring their environmental exposures.

    ERMI Sales Strategy:  Every time you go out and inspect a client’s tenant, it creates a potential new sales opportunity for you with the tenant.  While serving your client’s better, you are also creating a great opportunity to increase your sales.  Win /Win!!!!!

    https://projects.jsonline.com/news/2017/2/15/chemicals-left-in-barrels-leave-many-at-risk.html

  • Illicit Abandonment

    environmental Strategist®, between the lines:  Illicit Abandonment is an environmental exposure, which most commercial real estate lessors don’t think about.

    Let me digress, back in 2008 when the economy tanked, we received a call from an insurance agent who explained his client had a leased facility and the tenants went out of business.  When the client went to inspect their property, they found raw materials stored in 55 gallon drums, totes and other storage containers, which were left behind by the bankrupt tenant.  None of the containers were leaking or causing an environmental liability, but to rent the building out the owner had to get rid of the raw materials and it cost more than $80,000.  That is a simple example of illicit abandonment and this exposure can be covered with pollution liability insurance.

    The article below talks about refurbishing of containers, such as 55 gallon drums, and the environmental exposures it creates for workers and neighbors to business those refurbish containers.  The article also talks about how most containers they receive have some residual product left in the containers.

    When you see a facility like the one in this picture, which stores old containers outside over an unsealed surface, over time residuals will leak out and contaminate the ground and ground water.  Under federal law the owner of the property is ultimately responsible for the environmental condition of their property.  What if the contamination migrates onto a neighboring property?

    What the article does not talk about is the huge environmental exposure storage and use of 55 gallon drums, totes, buckets… creates for businesses that use them.  How does the business buy the raw materials; FOB point of shipment, or FOB point of delivery?  Do they store them in a secure area with secondary containment?

    As your client’s professional risk manager, do you go out and inspect their rental properties to make sure a tenant is not creating an environmental exposure for your insured?  What is the tenant’s strategy to meet the environmental indemnification contained in the lease agreement they signed?

    Is the tenant’s financial assurance strategy to go out of business if they create an environmental liability, and leave the property owner with an illicit abandonment exposure?

    Working with Environmental Risk Managers we can coach you and your client’s on better managing and transferring their environmental exposures.

    ERMI Sales Strategy:  Every time you go out and inspect a client’s tenant, it creates a potential new sales opportunity for you with the tenant.  While serving your client’s better, you are also creating a great opportunity to increase your sales.  Win /Win!!!!!

    https://projects.jsonline.com/news/2017/2/15/chemicals-left-in-barrels-leave-many-at-risk.html

  • It’s Spring Time and The Smell of Meth Is In The Air

    18 DEC 2008 Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team (KVET) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers wearing protective Hazmat gear work to dismantle a " meth lab cave" built into the side of a hill in a wooded area between Charles Avenue and East Michigan Avenue Thursday morning. An investigation into a meth manufacturing operation led to the discovery of the underground lab on Kalamazoo's east side. Mark Bugnaski / Kalamazoo Gazette
     Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers wearing protective Hazmat gear work to dismantle a ” meth lab cave” built into the side of a hill in a wooded area. An investigation into a meth manufacturing operation led to the discovery of the underground lab.
    Mark Bugnaski / Kalamazoo Gazette

    environmental Strategist, between the lines:  Meth labs are a huge environmental hazard that can impact each and every one of us.  Meth labs can be found in places such as homes, trailers parks, apartments, automobiles, hotel rooms, commercial buildings, storage units, or as the link below points out, mother nature.

     From the US Forest Service website on meth labs: 

    As an environmental hazard, the byproducts of meth labs contaminate their surroundings with harmful fumes and highly explosive chemical compounds.  Abandoned meth labs are basically time bombs, waiting for the single spark that can ignite the contents of the lab.  In the hands of the untrained chemists simultaneously using meth and working with the flammable chemical components, a working meth lab is just as unsafe.

    Simply put, meth kills.  The drug stimulates the central nervous system, producing excess levels of neurotoxins the brain cannot handle.  As a health concern, meth eliminates brain functions and leads to psychosis and, in some cases, deadly strokes.  Other long-term effects of meth use include respiratory problems, irregular heartbeat, extreme anorexia, tooth decay and loss, and cardiovascular collapse and death.

    How to recognize a Methamphetamine lab?

    • Unusual, strong odors like cat urine, ether, ammonia, acetone or other chemicals.
    • Coffee filters containing a white pasty substance, a dark red paste, or small amounts of shiny white crystals.
    • Glass cookware or stove pans containing a powdery residue.
    • Shacks or cabins with windows blacked out.
    • Open windows vented with fans during the winter.
    • Excessive trash including large amounts of items such as antifreeze containers, lantern fuel cans, engine starting fluid cans, HEET cans, lithium batteries and empty battery packages, wrappers, red chemically stained coffee filters, drain cleaner and duct tape.
    • Unusual amounts of clear glass containers.

    Getting rid of a meth lab is dangerous and expensive. Meth cookers dump battery acid, solvents and other toxic materials into rivers or the ground. Much of the waste is highly flammable and explosive.

    • One pound of meth produces six pounds of toxic waste.
    • Even months after meth labs have been closed, chemical residue still remains.
    • The chemicals used in the manufacturing process can be corrosive, explosive, flammable, toxic, and possibly radioactive.
    • Solvent chemicals may be dumped into the ground, sewers, or septic systems. This contaminates the surface water, ground water, and wells.
    • Traces of chemicals can pervade the walls, drapes, carpets, and furniture of a laboratory site.

    Pollution liability insurance can protect you against the environmental exposure to meth labs.  Contact your environmental team member at environmental Risk Managers to strategize in more detail. Instead of poisoning Mother Nature, let’s embrace her

    More Reading – 

    Spring thaw uncovers meth-related dump sites across Michigan

    http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2015/05/spring_brings_visibility_to_me.html#incart_m-rpt-2