Dirt Is a Pollutant! Water Is, Too … How to Create Clarity in Environmental Insurance Coverage and Lower the Cost of Environmental Risks

Abstract

General confusion about what is or could be an excluded-pollutant in property and liability insurance policies has created a situation where insurance agents and brokers cannot accurately advise their customers on how to insure environmental risks. Pollution exclusions are intended to exclude pollution-related claims. Over one hundred different environmental insurances have been designed to fill the coverage gaps created by pollution exclusions. By ignoring the fundamental purpose of pollution exclusions and the broad range of environmental insurance policies that are available, many environmental damage claims are needlessly uninsured today.