Environmental Liability
Environmental releases of hazardous materials require a prompt response to limit the spill generator's legal responsibility or liability. Understanding the potential liability associated with your company's activity and being adequately prepared to respond to environmental spills arising from that activity will help minimize any liability.The laws defining liability typically provide that a person who does a thing – transports, stores, or ships goods, for example – shall be legally responsible for damages resulting from doing that thing. It is the business activity and not the hazardous material spilled that gives rise to environmental liability. As the spill generator, it's your responsibility to contain the spill, report it, then clean it up.
Your are legally responsible because of who you are not what you do. A transporter activity creates legal responsibility, as does a shipper activity. If you meet the statutory definition of a legally responsible party, then it doesn't matter that a hazardous chemical spill was the result of an accident, even if the accident wasn't your fault. The liability for the release is yours, all the same.
