Legal Demands and Violations
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.
The key to staying out of trouble with environmental authorities is in knowing which reports you owe to whom after accidental releases of fuel, spent solvents, cleaning materials, toxic chemicals and other hazardous materials used in a typical fleet operation. Never try to cover up an environmental incident. Stiff fines for failure to report make that an unwise decision.
In fact, it's better to report a spill even if you do not believe it involves a reportable quantity. If someone in authority says it isn't reportable, that is the best legal defense against third-party claims related to the spill. Just make sure you get the name, position and phone number of the person who said you didn't need to report it.
