Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Account Executive of the Tree Care Group Rory Anderson discuss pollution liability for tree care companies.

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Director/Host: Alyssa Burley

Guest: Rory Anderson

Producer/Editor: Lauren Stumpf

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

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transcript

[Introduction Music]

Alyssa Burley: Hi! This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa’s Media Communications and Client Services Department. Thank you for listening to today’s top Rancho Mesa news brought to you by our safety and risk management network, StudioOne™. Welcome back, everyone. My guest is Rory Anderson, Account Executive with Rancho Mesa. He specializes in commercial insurance for the tree care industry. Today, we're going to talk about pollution liability for tree care companies. Rory, welcome to the show.

Rory Anderson: All right. Yeah, thanks for having me. Good to be back.

AB: Of course. Now, most tree care companies use things like pesticides, herbicides, fungicides- I think that's how you pronounce it. And other chemicals as a part of their daily operations. And even if they don't offer plant care or plant health care as a service, they may still use hydraulic fluids, gasoline and other fluids to operate or maintain their equipment and vehicles. And, I would assume that this opens up the company to environmental exposures if there were an accident. So, what is pollution coverage and is it something that is typically included in the general liability policy?

RA: Great, great question. And, it used to be included in the general liability policy. It started to be excluded in the 1980s. So, this is before my time in insurance. But, in the 1980s they started to add a pollution liability exclusion to the general liability policy due to the amount of claims that were being made in regards to asbestos at the time. So, nowadays the pollution coverage is a standard exclusion on any general liability policy. And, in order to protect your business against environment related claim or a pollution claim, you would need to go outside of your GL policy and get a standalone contractors pollution liability policy or a CPL policy in order to cover that exposure. And, for a tree care company, that's a big deal because like you mentioned, you know, they're using chippers, bucket trucks, aerial lifts, stump grinders, all that heavy equipment. They're using hydraulic fluids to operate that heavy equipment. And then, they're using things like gasoline for chainsaws, which is also a huge exposure. I mean, being a tree care company, all of your work is 100% outside in the environment. And so obviously, that's a big deal.

AB: All right. So, what about herbicide and pesticide applicator coverage endorsements? Is that enough? And, does the contractor still need a pollution liability policy if they have that endorsement?

RA: Yeah, it's a good topic. And, I get that question a lot and like we talked about in the beginning, tree care companies might have a plant health care division. Not all of them do include that operations within their business, but a lot of them do. And basically the herbicide pesticide applicator coverage endorsement is something that can get added to the GL policy with the right carrier. You have to be partnered with the right carrier who specializes in tree care in order to get that endorsement added. But basically, that endorsement simply can provide coverage and replace damaged or dead plants and trees if you mix a bad batch or if you over spray. But, what it might not cover is the full remediation efforts and/or business interruption losses that result from that type of situation. So again, you would need a full blown, you know, CPL policy to cover the entire situation.

AB: Okay. So, tree care companies should get a contractor's pollution liability policy to make sure that they are covered in the event of an actual environmental claim. The other endorsement really isn't going to cover something like that. Any last recommendations for our listeners?

RA: No, I think this the last you know, the last little bit like we talked about, you know, it's really important 100% outside. You want to make sure that you're covered in the environment and the pollution coverage can protect tree care contractors from all of those environmental liabilities, legal fees, clean-up costs and other big expenses that might come about from a claim.

AB: All right. Well, Rory, if listeners have questions about their pollution liability or any of their other insurance, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

RA: Yes, I can be reached at (619) 486-6437 or you can email me at randerson@ranchomesa.com.

[Outro Music]

AB: Rory, thanks for joining me in StudioOne™.

RA: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

AB: This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa. Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. For more information, visit us at ranchomesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.