Tag: pollution

Miss-Delivery of Product

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Miss-delivery of product is a huge environmental exposure most businesses do not consider. The article below highlights how in one of the most regulated industries, Nuclear, miss-delivery of products takes place. How easy is it for less regulated raw materials and products?

How would you like to find out a delivery made to you by Fed Ex had nuclear contamination because it got contaminated on the truck carrying the mislabeled nuclear material?

A miss-delivery loss that comes to mind is one where the driver delivering fuel to a county garage, delivered it to the wrong county. Not the wrong gas station across the street but the wrong county. Roughly 15 years of cleanup and millions of dollars later the county received a no further action letter. The problem was such because the county had just had their fuel tanks filled a few days prior and when the driver sat back to read the paper thousands of gallons of gas went over the surface, into municipal and storm sewers before the driver noticed and shut off the gas.

There are several pollution policies that can cover miss-delivery of products. What is your clients financial assurance strategy to protect themselves from miss delivery of product/s?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/08/01/nuclear-labs-radioactive-mail/104058890/

August 7, 2017
Miss-Delivery of Product

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Miss-delivery of product is a huge environmental exposure most businesses do not consider. The article below highlights how in one of the most regulated industries, Nuclear, miss-delivery of products takes place. How easy is it for less regulated raw materials and products?

How would you like to find out a delivery made to you by Fed Ex had nuclear contamination because it got contaminated on the truck carrying the mislabeled nuclear material?

Photo Credit: thebalance.com

A miss-delivery loss that comes to mind is one where the driver delivering fuel to a county garage, delivered it to the wrong county. Not the wrong gas station across the street but the wrong county. Roughly 15 years of cleanup and millions of dollars later the county received a no further action letter. The problem was such because the county had just had their fuel tanks filled a few days prior and when the driver sat back to read the paper thousands of gallons of gas went over the surface, into municipal and storm sewers before the driver noticed and shut off the gas.

There are several pollution policies that can cover miss-delivery of products. What is your clients financial assurance strategy to protect themselves from miss delivery of product/s?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/08/01/nuclear-labs-radioactive-mail/104058890/

August 7, 2017
Internet Pollution Liabilities

environmental Strategist between the lines: Facebook, Amazon, Google, Alibaba… have become the latest distribution networks creating products pollution and other environmental liability exposures for your commercial insureds. Countries such as China who has brought us such contaminated products as dry wall, wood floors, lead laced children toys and Mardi Gras necklaces, dog food…, are now able to able to use internet based companies and side step the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

Photo Credit: www.wordpress.com

Coach your client’s to make sure they do not get themselves into a products pollution or other environmental exposure while trying to increase profits. A clear majority of products have imitations being made. In the past when it was a purse or a watch it did not cause much environmental harm. Now we are talking about cancer causing, skin burning materials / chemicals that cause not only bodily injury but have a negative impact upon our environment.

I bet Al Gore did not factor in environmental liabilities when he invented the internet.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/leticiamiranda/hoverboards-vapes-and-spinners-are-reshaping-economy?utm_term=.sxY2ep5dPY#.ruv3wMDBPr

June 7, 2017
Internet Pollution Liabilities

environmental Strategist between the lines: Facebook, Amazon, Google, Alibaba… have become the latest distribution networks creating products pollution and other environmental liability exposures for your commercial insureds. Countries such as China who has brought us such contaminated products as dry wall, wood floors, lead laced children toys and Mardi Gras necklaces, dog food…, are now able to able to use internet based companies and side step the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

Coach your client’s to make sure they do not get themselves into a products pollution or other environmental exposure while trying to increase profits. A clear majority of products have imitations being made. In the past when it was a purse or a watch it did not cause much environmental harm. Now we are talking about cancer causing, skin burning materials / chemicals that cause not only bodily injury but have a negative impact upon our environment.

I bet Al Gore did not factor in environmental liabilities when he invented the internet.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/leticiamiranda/hoverboards-vapes-and-spinners-are-reshaping-economy?utm_term=.sxY2ep5dPY#.ruv3wMDBPr

June 7, 2017
ERMI on Contractors
Contractors continue to be the number one class of business Environmental Risk Managers, Inc. (ERMI) writes for our Partner Agencies. The vast majority of this is being driven by contracts requiring contractors to evidence Contractor’s Pollution Liability (CPL) insurance in order to perform their construction services.

“Back in the day” it was not uncommon for contractors to negotiate the CPL insurance requirement out of the contracts. Today, so many companies have experienced environmental liabilities created by the contractors they have hired that it’s common practice to require CPL coverage and not negotiate it out of the contract. Home Depot and Walmart have spearheaded the charge since they each paid multi-million dollar fines to the EPA for liabilities created by their vendor contractors.

Photo Credit: mytotalretail.com

ERMI has also developed environmental Risk Assessments (eRA) for a variety of construction classes. The eRA’s are designed to get you and your client/s on the same page about the environmental exposures impacting their operations. We send our eRA’s in a Word format so you can cut and paste them into a marketing presentation that compliments your agencies marketing program. Our Partner Agencies find utilizing the eRA’s is an excellent way to leverage their insurance sales because an educated insured understands the value investing in an environmental insurance product will add to their business model.

The eRA’s come in three parts:
1. Review of environmental exposure impacting your insured.
2. Environmental loss examples
3. Environmental insurance coverage’s that are appropriate for the insured to consider.
The ultimate goal is to educate your insured so they can make the best decisions for their business. If your insured sees value and elects to further pursue environmental insurance coverage, we’re here to make your job easier by utilizing our insurance network to market your client’s submission and supply you with the best coverage options.

Please let ERMI know how we can assist you to drive your sales of CPL coverage.
May 23, 2017
ERMI on Contractors
Contractors continue to be the number one class of business Environmental Risk Managers, Inc. (ERMI) writes for our Partner Agencies. The vast majority of this is being driven by contracts requiring contractors to evidence Contractor’s Pollution Liability (CPL) insurance in order to perform their construction services.

“Back in the day” it was not uncommon for contractors to negotiate the CPL insurance requirement out of the contracts. Today, so many companies have experienced environmental liabilities created by the contractors they have hired that it’s common practice to require CPL coverage and not negotiate it out of the contract. Home Depot and Walmart have spearheaded the charge since they each paid multi-million dollar fines to the EPA for liabilities created by their vendor contractors.

ERMI has also developed environmental Risk Assessments (eRA) for a variety of construction classes. The eRA’s are designed to get you and your client/s on the same page about the environmental exposures impacting their operations. We send our eRA’s in a Word format so you can cut and paste them into a marketing presentation that compliments your agencies marketing program. Our Partner Agencies find utilizing the eRA’s is an excellent way to leverage their insurance sales because an educated insured understands the value investing in an environmental insurance product will add to their business model.

The eRA’s come in three parts:
1. Review of environmental exposure impacting your insured.
2. Environmental loss examples
3. Environmental insurance coverage’s that are appropriate for the insured to consider.
The ultimate goal is to educate your insured so they can make the best decisions for their business. If your insured sees value and elects to further pursue environmental insurance coverage, we’re here to make your job easier by utilizing our insurance network to market your client’s submission and supply you with the best coverage options.

Please let ERMI know how we can assist you to drive your sales of CPL coverage.
May 23, 2017
What you need to know about UST’s

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Below is a You Tube video that does an excellent job of explaining how an underground storage tank (UST) operates. Under Federal law, regulated UST’s must evidence financial assurance should there be a release from the UST system.

The problem facing UST owners today is the age of their tanks. Back in the 1990’s the Federal Government established financial assurance requirements but never consulted with the insurance industry to find out what the insurability of a 20 or 30 year old tank system would be. Now we have an aging UST’s in the United States and for the most part, tank owners have not budgeted to replace their systems and find themselves caught

If you have insureds with tanks over 20 years old you need to coach them up on replacing their tanks. Once a tank reaches 25 years old there are just a couple of insurance carriers that will offer coverage and the premiums and deductibles go up drastically and retro dates are shortened. For tanks over 30 years old it is a crap shoot if any insurance carrier will offer coverage.

As your environmental team member, ERMI is ready to assist you and your insureds with their UST financial assurance needs.

video on underground storage tanks

November 23, 2016
Criminal Investigation Underway in Air Force Toxic Chemical Release

environmental Strategist, between the lines: The United States Military may be the world’s number one polluter. While military bases offer an economic boom for the communities where they are located, they also have a history of polluting their neighbors. Billions of tax dollars are spent each year cleaning up pollution caused by our military. Contamination from military operations can spread for miles impacting third party properties.

My experience is the military is slow to identify contamination and even slower in paying to take care of the problem. What is your financial assurance strategy if you are near a military base to address pollution liabilities? Pollution insurance can protect you from third party polluters.

Associated Press | Nov 02, 2016 | by Dan Elliott

DENVER — Military and civilian authorities are investigating whether any laws were broken in the unexplained discharge of 150,000 gallons of wastewater tainted with toxic chemicals at an Air Force base in Colorado.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are looking into the release of the contaminated wastewater at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, officials said Tuesday.

The chemicals flowed into the city’s wastewater treatment system but didn’t get into its drinking water, officials said.

The discharge was discovered on Oct. 12 and announced six days later.

Air Force officials have scheduled a news conference Wednesday to discuss the incident and other issues surrounding the chemicals, called perfluorinated compounds or PFCs.

PFCs are an ingredient in firefighting foam used at Peterson and other military installations. They have also been used in non-stick cookware coatings and other applications.

PFCs have been linked to prostate, kidney and testicular cancer, along with other illnesses. The Air Force announced in August it would switch to some other type of foam.

Air Force officials haven’t said how high the levels of PFCs were in the wastewater released at Peterson.

The Colorado Springs wastewater treatment system isn’t set up to remove PFCs, so they were still in the water when it was discharged into Fountain Creek, officials said. State officials said no communities take water directly from the creek downstream from the treatment plant.

The water was in a storage tank used to recirculate the water to a fire training area, officials said. It would have been re-used in firefighting exercises.

The discharge was discovered during a routine tank inspection. Air Force officials said they found no obvious defects in the tank.

The Air Force is also investigating whether Peterson is the source of PFC contamination found in well water in two other nearby communities, the town of Fountain and an unincorporated community called Security-Widefield.

November 8, 2016
Mergers, Acquisitions & Pollution Protection (MAPP)

Representations & Warranties Overview

The Mergers, Acquisitions in the ERMI MAPP program, depicts the Representations and Warranties coverage. As the link below points out, representations are statements about the current status of the business or its operations. Warranties go further than representations about current status because they guarantee the truth of the statements.

The need for MAPP with M&A’s is unquestioned since breached representations and warranties are the most common cause of litigation in acquisitions.

To give you a better understanding of representation & warranties, the link below offers a general list and explanation of common representations and warranties that will be contained in M&A documents.

http://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/closing-a-business/sample-representations-and-warranties.html

Download article as a PDF

August 10, 2016
Major Supermarket Chain Fined Over Refrigerant Leaks

environmental Strategist, between the lines: Reputational risk associated with environmental liabilities can devastate a business.

Besides reputational risk, environmental liabilities create financial stress due to clean up, legal costs, investigation costs, third party bodily injury, third party property damage, third party business income and much more. Since every business is impacted by environmental exposures and at least 90% of the businesses in the United States can’t afford to self-insure the environmental exposures impacting their operations, pollution liability insurance has proven to be a sound investment versus self-insuring.

Refrigerants make air conditioning and refrigeration possible.

What businesses do you work with that have this same environmental exposure as Trader Joes due to their use of refrigeration systems? Agriculture operations, food processors, restaurants, resorts, educational institutions, transportation / logistics companies, warehouses, convenience stores / gas stations, contractors that service refrigeration systems / HVAC, commercial real estate owners, medical facilities, laboratories, ice rinks and many, many more.

Trader Joe’s penalized $500,000 over refrigerant leaks

Kimiya Manoochehri, USA TODAY1:39 p.m. EDT June 22, 2016

Trader Joe’s, the boutique supermarket chain known for its healthy and exotic foods, has agreed to a $500,000 settlement arising from leaky refrigeration systems that contribute to global warming under an agreement with the federal government.

The chain is expected to spend an additional $2 million over the next three years as part of a settlement announced Tuesday by the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency to improve the equipment at 453 stores nationwide. The stores have been leaking a coolant called R-22, which government attorneys say depletes the ozone layer and is a greenhouse gas. They had alleged the leak violates the Clean Air Act and federal stratospheric ozone regulations.

“Some of the refrigerants now in use by Trader Joe’s are up to 4,700 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” said Alexis Strauss, acting regional administrator for EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “Today’s settlement will affect all of Trader Joe’s current and new stores to prevent the release of approximately 31,000 metric tons of carbon-equivalent greenhouse gases.”

National Director of Public Relations for Trader Joe’s, Alison Mochizuki, released the following statement regarding the settlement: “Trader Joe’s looks forward to working with the EPA in its mission to reduce air pollution and protect the ozone layer, and, with this agreement, has committed to reducing its emissions to a rate that matches the best of the industry.”

Trader Joe’s, based on Monrovia, Calif, becomes the third grocery chain to face concerns about refrigerant leaks. Previous cases have been filed against Safeway and Costco Wholesale for similar leaks of ozone-depleting refrigerants since 2013. All three companies are also being required to heighten their leak monitoring and recordkeeping, as well as electronic reporting to the EPA.

June 29, 2016