environmental Strategist, between the lines: Do you have any client’s with holding / storage tanks? This loss could be covered under a pollution policy. I wonder how much the Coast Guard and emergency response contractors charge to clean up 6,000 gallons from three miles of river near Chicago? I wonder how much the business interruption costs might be for the boat and barge traffic that had to stop their operations while clean up took place. I wonder how much it cost to clean up the 60,000 gallons that did not make it to the river? I wonder how much damage 65,000 gallons can do to third party properties? I wonder if they had a plan prepared to coordinate claims management (emergency response contractors, communications, public relations, government reporting, financial management…)? I wonder if natural resources were damaged? I wonder how much they will have to spend on legal fees for defense costs? I wonder ……?
A pollution policy will cover all of this and it costs your client’s 10ths of a cent on the dollar versus self insuring and paying 100 cents on the dollar out of their own pocket. What makes better business sense to you? I wonder what option makes better business sense to your client’s? Have you asked?
The good news for Caterpillar from the report is they do not have to worry about any third party claims for bodily injury.
Oil Contaminates Des Plaines River
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 9, 2009
ROCKDALE, Ill. (AP) — A holding tank at a Caterpillar facility in southwest suburban
Chicago broke open early Sunday morning, spilling about 65,000 gallons of oil sludge and contaminating a three-mile section of the Des Plaines River, officials said. “It is being contained, and there is no evidence of a fish kill or harm to water fowl,” Maggie Carson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, said by e-mail.
Most of the sludge spilled on land, but 6,000 gallons seeped into the Des Plaines River, Petty Officer William Mitchell of the Coast Guard said. Officer Mitchell said the oil waste poses no risk to human health.
The Coast Guard also said barge and boat traffic along the river had been stopped.