As an environmental insurance wholesaler, Environmental Risk Managers, Inc. (ERMI) regularly fields calls from retail agents who went direct to an environmental insurance carrier for an indication, they are not familiar with coverage and could we offer some insight.<\/p>\n
In a recent conversation with an agent, I mentioned there were some coverages not being offered in the indication and when I pointed out Natural Resource Damages was not being covered, the agent asked what Natural Resource Damages were and was that an important coverage?<\/p>\n
My initial thought is that this is exactly why specialty environmental insurance wholesalers like ERMI exist and fortunate we were able to assist our now, new agent to avoid potential E&O exposure.<\/p>\n
This is also a good coaching moment on why it\u2019s critical for businesses to have an environmental financial assurance plan to address Natural Resource Damages.<\/p>\n
What are Natural Resources?<\/u>\u00a0 The EPA (https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/superfund\/natural-resource-damages-frequently-asked-questions#1<\/a>) states \u201cUnder both the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), there are two parts to the “natural resources” definition. First, natural resources are defined broadly to include land, fish, wildlife, biota, air, water, groundwater, drinking water supplies and other such resources. Second, the resource must belong to, be managed by, held in trust by, appertain to or otherwise be controlled by the United States, any State, an Indian Tribe, a local government or a foreign government [CERCLA \u00a7101(16); OPA \u00a71001(20)].\u201d<\/p>\n What are Natural Resource Damages?<\/u>\u00a0 The EPA states \u201cDamages are defined as injury to, destruction of, or loss of natural resources [CERCLA \u00a7\u00a7101(6); 107(a)(4)(C); 111(b); OPA \u00a7\u00a71001(5); 1002(b)(2)]. The measure of damages under CERCLA and OPA is the cost of restoring injured natural resources to their baseline condition, compensation for the interim loss of injured resources pending recovery, and the reasonable costs of a damage assessment [CERCLA \u00a7\u00a7107(a)(4)(C); 107(f)(1); OPA \u00a7\u00a71001(5); 1002(b)(2); 43 CFR \u00a711.15; 15 CFR \u00a7990.62].\u201d<\/p>\n Apart from living in Vail, Co. for two years after college, I have been a lifelong resident of Michigan, \u201cWater, Winter Wonderland\u201d.\u00a0 In Michigan, you are never more than six miles from a body of water, roughly 50% of the Upper Peninsula is government or tribal owned land\u2026, as a Michigander, you understand why environmental financial assurance for Natural Resources Damages is critical.\u00a0 What Natural Resources could your client\u2019s impact should they have a pollution liability?\u00a0 Pollution liabilities tend to be a severity versus frequency issues and Natural Resource Damages is a great example.<\/p>\n What is your environmental financial assurance strategy to address Natural Resource Damages?<\/p>\n Natural Resource Damages examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n What about Natural Resource Damages from Cyberattacks?\u00a0 As a general rule, cyber policies do not cover for pollution losses that result due to a cyberattack:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.scic.com\/do-your-clients-need-pollution-liability-coverage-for-cyberattacks\/<\/a><\/p>\n The Trump Organization was accused of taking almost 20 million gallons of river water per day to cool their Chicago skyscraper, then pushing warm water back into the river without a permit breaking rules meant to protect fish and wildlife:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.costar.com\/article\/1919798340\/trump-tower-insurers-off-the-hook-in-chicago-river-pollution-lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n Dam owner guilty in field turf pollution of Washington river.\u00a0 A bypass was used to divert a river allowing construction work on a dam.\u00a0 The bypass failed and allowed black rubber particles from recycled tires into the river:\u00a0 https:\/\/mynorthwest.com\/3845252\/dam-owner-guilty-in-field-turf-pollution-of-washington-river-2\/<\/a><\/p>\n Click on the link for more on becoming a Certified environmental Strategist (CeS), offered through The National Alliance:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 https:\/\/www.scic.com\/certified-environmental-strategist\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As an environmental insurance wholesaler, Environmental Risk Managers, Inc. (ERMI) regularly fields calls from retail agents who went direct to an environmental insurance carrier for an indication, they are not familiar with coverage and could we offer some insight. In a recent conversation with an agent, I mentioned there were some coverages not being offered… Continue reading What are Natural Resource Damages In Pollution Policies?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-risk","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3060"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3061,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060\/revisions\/3061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}