Protect Your Auto Garage Operations From a Pollution Loss
As a garage owner, you deal with a lot of specialized equipment and materials and most of these materials are considered pollutants should they infiltrate the soil, air, or water.
The Problem
Now, think of the equipment and materials you use every day - paint, solvents, hydraulics - and the places you store them. Most General Liability policies do not cover clean-up or the defense costs if a pollutant has caused bodily injury or property damage - even if by accident!
Imagine how many of these pollutant exposures your business encounters daily
- Emissions from vehicles, paint booths etc.
- Chemical smells and releases
- Garages: oil change sites, tire repair, auto garages and collision centers, truck centers, farm, and equipment dealers
- Storage of used oil, antifreeze, and other fluids
- Aboveground and underground tanks
- Drums, paints, thinners, cleaners, solvents
- Hydraulic lifts and machinery discharges
- Wash pits and facility septic systems
- Even midnight dumping!
The Solution
Top O’ Michigan has developed an exclusive and affordable solution that offers Pollution Liability in limits ranging from
- $250,000 (Starting at $400 per location)
- $500,000 (Starting at $600 per location)
- $1,000,000 (Starting at $800 per location)
Our program offers Pollution Liability to help pay for bodily injury claims or clean-up costs stemming from a pollutant that originated from your garage exposure. It is specifically designed for garages, dealerships, car washes, and collision centers.
Real Claims...It Could Happen To You!
- Fires can happen to any business…but auto-related businesses use hazardous chemicals!
- An Auto Salvage facility caught on fire. The fire department’s high-pressure hoses forced melting plastics, metals, insulation, roofing, drywall, chemicals, and other materials to build up inside the building’s foundation, creating a toxic “sludge”. Some of the “sludge” escaped the building and migrated onto to neighboring properties.
- The property owner was responsible for clean-up, 3rd party property damage & business interruption, and natural resource damages, which totaled over $3,500,000.
- Aboveground Storage Tanks: They can leak if improperly maintained.
- The concrete secondary containment of a 10,000-gallon diesel aboveground storage tank was cracked. The crack released 8,000 gallons into the containment, releasing diesel into the underlying soils and requiring costly excavation and removal.
- Total cost for investigation, removal and disposal exceeded $320,000.
- Vehicle Lifts: Hydraulic fluids can leak.
- A business experienced two claims where hydraulic fluid from a vehicle lift escaped and seeped into the ground.
- Both property sites had to be remediated, costing $220,000+ to clean up.
- Wash Bays: They can release cleaning solvents into water.
- The wash bay’s piping system at an auto dealer released a substantial amount of cleaning solvents into soil and ground water.
- Cost to remediate the cleaning solvents, soil, and ground water exceeded $250,000.
