environmental Strategist, between the lines: A huge environmental exposure most businesses do not think about comes from their neighbors. When an environmental engineer conducts a Phase I site assessment they do a minimum of a 2-mile radius search of the subject property to see if any neighbors have been identified as contaminators that can impact third parties.
Ask a business if they have any environmental exposures and over 90% will answer no. As the link below points out, neighbors create a variety of environmental liabilities that impact third parties from air emissions, storm water runoff, vapor intrusion….
Part of the Red Tide in the Gulf of Mexico is created by storm water runoff from farms, municipalities… that goes into the Mississippi river and is flushed out in the Gulf. The Mississippi delivers contamination to the Gulf from over 2,000 miles away.
The map below shows the nuclear fallout from the Fukushima nuclear reactor. People living in Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, California Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada… were showered with nuclear contamination.
Over 90% of the businesses do not realize or even think about how they are self-insuring for their neighbor’s environmental liabilities. That is where environmental insurance can fill in a huge exposure and financial liability for a business.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/michigan-scrambles-address-chemical-contaminants-155149564.html