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Non-Owned Disposal Sites (NODS)

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Non-owned disposal sites (NODS) are facilities to which owners/operators or contractors take waste. Companies utilizing NODS typically have no ownership interest or control over them. The material shipped there may be waste from a company, tenants, client, or anyone else’s waste the generator is responsible for. NODS coverage is designed to protect insureds against claims for bodily injury, property damage, or cleanup costs made against a disposal facility and environmental regulators or attorneys representing the disposal facility. It also protects third parties in the vicinity of the disposal site and owners/operators or contractors that initially generated the waste. In some instances, this coverage may also respond to the inadvertent, improper disposal of waste by insureds.

Environmental Concerns for NODS

Typical types of NODS include, but are not limited to:

  • Landfills/surface impoundments/landfarms
  • Transfer stations
  • Recycling facilities (hazardous and non-hazardous)
  • Incinerators
  • Municipal solid waste facilities
  • Construction debris landfills

Sample Environmental Events Associated with NODS

  • The State Attorney General filed charges against several companies, businesses, and municipalities that once sent their trash to a landfill. The suit alleged that the trash caused environmental damage and needed to be removed from the 75 acre landfill. Some of the parties that contributed waste to the landfill settled with the attorney general for $5 million.
  • The owner of an apartment complex hired contractors to remove and dispose of over twenty 55-gallon drums of hazardous materials. Most of the hazardous materials were components of urethane foam product used in roofing. The contractors took the some of the drums to a friend’s house and left other drums on the side of a road and under a bridge near the apartment complex. The state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was left to hire a contractor to clean up the waste at a significant cost.
  • The owner of a gas station contracted an environmental company to remove four 55- gallon drums of hazardous waste. The contractor picked up the drums and illegally abandoned them. The drums contained liquid waste that was generated from pressure testing of underground storage tanks.

To request more information about NODS or to discuss a specific account, contact us.