No matter what type of business you run, the EPA or environmental protection agency has regulations to help ensure your company does not have a large negative impact on the environment. These regulations are in place to help protect the communities and eco systems surrounding industrial businesses. While as people we would like to believe that business owners would not want to make decisions that would harm other humans or the environments around their work sites, the reality is that sometimes profits are considered before environmental damage. Regulations and penalties set up by the EPA help create an incentive for businesses to more strongly consider the environmental implications of their actions. In some cases, companies experience work place accidents or errors that result in contamination of the environment. In these cases, investigations are launched to find out why the accident occurred and to take steps to ensure that it does not happen again. As part of the EPA regulations there are a number of mandates that require a preparedness action to be in place at all businesses in case an accident does occur. These preparations can help decrease the negative impact and reduce the amount of time a cleanup will take. While any company can be responsible for environmental contamination, these are some of the most common industrial pollutants.
Farming was once a family affair. Small farms were run by families who took pride in everything they grew. Over the last century, the demand for more food combined with the profitability of farming increasing, has led to a corporate takeover of the family farm. Industrial farming operations are massive and with profits as the bottom line, these large corporate farms have introduced a number of chemicals into the growing process. Chemicals are sprayed onto plants and as the plants are watered the chemicals make their way into the ground and eventually into the ground water that is used for drinking.
Many manufacturing, mining, and other business use a wide variety of toxic chemicals in their operations. Once the chemicals are used there is often still a large amount of toxic byproduct that has to go somewhere. Large tanks, or lined pits have been the choice storage for these toxic materials. With no real safe way to eliminate these chemicals they are left for years in these storage facilities. Sometimes, the lining can wear away, or is not properly installed and the toxic chemicals begin to seep into the ground. This can lead to a number of problems including ground water or air contamination.
One of the highest profile corporate pollution accidents that occurs fairly regularly are oil spills. Oil spilling into any water source from either a drilling rig or a ship, has devastating effects on the eco system in the water and can also affect the lives of people who live nearby. While many of these spills are not deliberate, the oil companies are still help responsible for the cleanup.
Any company can be cited by the EPA for violating environmental regulations but these are just three of the most common types of industrial pollution.
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Written by Lawrence Reaves for Beacon Hill Associates - http://www.b-h-a.com - a wholesale insurance broker and program administrator focusing on specialty insurance related to the environment and pollution.
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