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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Current status of the Federal superfund indemnification and discussion of trends in DOE and DOD indemnification practices

Conference ·
OSTI ID:41789
The enactment of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (Superfund) (CERCLA) (Public Law 96-510) following closely on the heels of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 (Public Law 94-580) established a new realm of opportunities and exposures for environmental engineers and contractors. The mandated management and cleanup of hazardous wastes sites under these laws established tremendous business opportunities for firms willing to provide hazardous waste services. However, an unwanted side effect of their push for environmental protection was the exposure of contractors to potentially, unlimited liabilities during the performance of clean-up activities. Contractors normally assess and manage risks associated with specific projects through insurance and the pricing of their work. Unfortunately, the field of hazardous waste remediation is still in its infancy and accurately assessing the potentially catastrophic risks is still a developing art form. To compound the risk management problem, the normal insurance products used to transfer risk, Commercial General Liability (CGL) and Professional Errors and Omissions (E&O), started to exclude coverage for pollution incidents about the same time. This left the remediation firms without a satisfactory method to handle the risks. The contractors` response was to request indemnification for pollution liabilities arising from the remediation work. The responses from the various Federal Agencies have been mixed and have varied over the years. The body of this paper will explore the different approaches to sharing pollution liability risks taken by the major Federal Agencies involved in clean-up activities.
OSTI ID:
41789
Report Number(s):
CONF-9306269--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English