Coverage for Limited Pollution Removal

• Government directives concerning pollutant cleanup.
• The costs associated with extracting pollutants from, or replacing or restoring, contaminated groundwater or soil.
• Any claimed business-interruption losses due to limited access to the insured premises or adjacent premises due to pollutant cleanup.
• Damage to the insured premises other than the affected storage unit or the property of others resulting from the storage or removal of pollutants in a tenant’s storage unit.

Finally, coverage amounts are limited to those stated in the policy declarations page or on the endorsement itself, and can be described in two ways: per occurrence, which means each individual incident of pollution in a storage unit at the insured premises; and in the aggregate, which encompasses all individual incidents in any policy year. These policy limitations are contractual in nature. The insurance company is not bound to pay any more for covered losses or related expenses than the agreed-upon limitations.

A limited pollution-removal endorsement provides protection to your storage facility in case of a toxic event in any storage space. Even though coverage is often extremely limited, the endorsement also provides protection to your facility in the hope that early detection and cleanup of the immediate area of environmental exposure will prevent more serious environmental damage from occurring at your property.

This article is not intended to act as legal advice or to take the place of consultation with your insurance agent and attorney. Consultations with these professionals are critical to ensure your business has the appropriate insurance coverage and you have full understanding of the coverages and limitations of your policy. 

Michael Rice is manager of claims for Phoenix-based MiniCo Inc., which provides specialty programs for self-storage businesses including property and casualty insurance and tenant insurance programs. For more information, call 800.528.1056; visit www.minico.com.