Emergency spill precautions help reduce liability

By Donald P. Watson

Over the past 20 years all levels of government have moved their focus to the quality of water that gathers in our watersheds. Newly implemented rules, regulations and fines have a great impact on the automotive industry.

Dozens of ideas have surfaced to protect the quality of our water, while reducing the waste of this precious commodity. Some of these ideas have trickled down to industry. The reality is that there are tremendous savings to be had by industry through implementing waste management programs. Proper gathering systems, reusable absorbents and proper segregation of waste hydrocarbons are only some of the areas that can be addressed. Industries recognize that there are inherent costs associated with waste management. The numbers get larger down the line the longer you wait. A thousand dollars invested now can save a company ten thousand dollars in fines next year. The misconception was that good disposal practices and concern of hazardous goods spelt out huge increases in the cost of doing business. This is not the case. But as the saying goes, "you can pay it now, or pay it later".

The difference in payments is this. Paying the initial costs up front to initiate pro-active procedures takes your dollars and funnels them towards resolving problems and eliminating the potential costs of fines after a spill has occurred. In case after case companies that were not prepared have not only paid for the cleanup of the spills or contaminated soils; they have had to initiate expensive studies of their sites, obtain costly monitoring equipment and prepare their site for possible future problems. This is always followed by the fines and associated costs to prosecute.

The practice of ignoring the problem is going the way of gas guzzling cars. Governments have laid out basic demands upon industry that it must follow in order to insure that it is capable of responding to the inevitable spill. The courts apply fines based upon their interpretation of "due diligence", by this they mean what actions were taken to prevent an occurrence or to protect the environment after an incident. Due diligence is defined into three categories: Contingency planning, emergency response equipment, and training. Each area must be addressed since without one of these elements in your environmental plan, liability for an incident still remains high.

1. Contingency planning: This area covers internal and external plans in respect to spills and Fire prevention.
2. Emergency response equipment: This is equipment that you should have on site for response to fires or spills.
3. Training: Without proper training in the use of the emergency response equipment the other two elements of "due diligence" will fail.

Once we have addressed these areas, the first steps have been taken in being pro-active in the prevention of spills or occurrences. Just ask your insurance company how these preparations affect your coverage. Preparation doesn't insulate you from prosecution; it will however dramatically reduce the fines levied by the courts. There is nothing you can do to prevent Acts of God, or third-party negligence. However preparation is seen by the courts as the starting point. In the short term working together through associations to establish basic standards for operations and pooling resources to develop environmental plans is the best way to show "due diligence" and keep costs down.

Long term planning for bio-remediation (the use of bacteria or "bugs") of contaminated sites will produce low cost methods of cleaning up properties and returning them to current market value.

The bottom line is to act now and prepare short and long term plans for site protection and cleanup.

Originally published in Automotive Retailer (Burnaby BC, 1993), 8-10.