The Big Spill

Five years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, blackened beaches resulting from the worst oil spill in U.S. history have since been cleaned up—but the potential remains for businesses to wreak havoc on the environment. Each of the past five years has seen numerous news reports involving pipeline leakage, industrial and agricultural discharge, and other pollution events. In August 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency accidentally released millions of gallons of chemical-laced water into Colorado’s Animas River, highlighting the fact that even the most careful operations aren’t immune from inadvertently creating a crisis.

“We obviously don’t like it when the environment gets polluted but, quite frankly, it shows that coverage is needed,” says David Brereton, program manager for environmental impairment liability at Freberg Environmental Insurance. “High-profile incidents on the news lead to people seeking coverage.”