At the Oregon Trucking Association’s Spring Safety Conference in April, Spill Center® President Tom Moses discussed the potential liability arising from spills of hazmat and diesel fuel and ways trucking companies can protect themselves from claims.
Any kind of spill that requires emergency environmental clean-up, whether from a ruptured fuel tank or a spilled load, can set off a complicated and potentially expensive chain of events, related Moses, adding that a maze of federal, state and local jurisdictions across the U.S. require incident reports from spill generators.
Reportable quantities of spilled material vary from one jurisdiction to the next, and spills often involve multiple jurisdictions, confusing the issue. Depending on the jurisdiction and type of spill, a spill generator might have to file up to a dozen different reports to regulatory agencies within a certain time frame, he added. Being prepared involves knowing which reports are required, where to send them, and the specified time frame after a spill for all the jurisdictions in which a company’s trucks travel.
