Your liability policy has a pollution exclusion, and it is broader than the word suggests.
Most people hear pollution and picture a chemical plant. The exclusion reaches ordinary trades: a fuel spill from a machine, silt running off a site, smoke, fumes, mould, and soil carted to the wrong place. None of that feels like pollution until a policy calls it that.
Start a quote file Read the short answer firstIt reaches fuel, silt, fumes and mould.
Remediation is the cost, not the damage.
Contractors pollution is its own policy.
Does general liability cover a fuel spill or contaminated soil?
Usually not. Commercial general liability policies carry a pollution exclusion, and it is written widely enough to catch a hydraulic hose failing on a job site, diesel escaping from a tank, silt washing into a storm drain, smoke or fumes drifting off site, and mould following water damage. What answers those is contractors pollution liability, or a site specific environmental policy, and both are bought separately.
The reason this catches ordinary trades is the shape of the cost. Environmental losses are rarely about damage to a building. They are about the cost of investigating, digging up, hauling away and disposing of contaminated material, plus reporting to a regulator. That is remediation, and remediation is what the exclusion is aimed at.
Excavation and earthworks, demolition, plumbing and mechanical, roofing with torches and solvents, fuel and equipment servicing, landscaping near watercourses, and anyone hauling soil off a site. These are ordinary trades doing ordinary work. A single machine leaking on a residential lot with a watercourse nearby can produce a remediation bill out of all proportion to the contract value, and the general liability policy that covers everything else the business does will not answer it. If your work disturbs ground or moves fuel, this is the gap worth pricing.
Four costs the liability policy steps back from.
Clean-up at the site you were working on
Investigation, excavation, removal, disposal and confirmation testing. This is the largest number in most environmental claims and it is the one most contractors assume is covered somewhere.
Damage that migrates
Contamination does not stop at a property line. It moves through soil and groundwater onto neighbouring land, and a third party claim from next door is a different and often larger exposure than the site you were hired for.
Transported material
Soil, waste and fuel loaded onto a truck and taken somewhere. Where it goes, and whether the receiving site was entitled to take it, becomes your problem in ways that surprise people. Coverage for material in transit and at the disposal site is a specific question to ask.
Emergency response and reporting
The immediate cost of containing a spill and the work of notifying the right authorities. Getting this right in the first hours changes the size of everything that follows, and policies that include a response service are worth more than the limit alone suggests.
Three ordinary jobs.
The hose that let go
A hydraulic line failed on an excavator on a residential lot. The spill itself was small. The soil had to be assessed, removed and replaced, and the work stopped while that happened. The contractor held a good general liability policy and none of it responded.
The silt after the rain
An exposed site drained into a storm system during a heavy week. Nothing toxic was involved and it was still a reportable discharge with a clean-up attached. Erosion and sediment control is a site management issue first, and an insurance question immediately after.
The mould behind the wall
Water damage was dried and repaired, and mould appeared later behind a finished wall. Many liability and property wordings treat mould as pollution or exclude it by name. The repair was ordinary. The classification was what decided who paid.
The ones that come up when a contract asks for it.
We are a small trade. Is this really for us?
It depends on what your work disturbs rather than on the size of the business. A two person excavation or plumbing outfit can create a remediation cost far larger than its annual revenue. A trade that never breaks ground or handles fuel has much less to think about here.
Does builders risk cover contamination on the project?
Generally no. Builders risk covers physical loss or damage to the work under construction. Contamination of soil or water is a liability and remediation question, and it sits in a different policy entirely.
The contract asks for pollution cover. Can we get it quickly?
Tell us the deadline when you send the clause and we will tell you honestly whether it can be met. The information an insurer wants is straightforward: what you do, where, and what you disturb.
What about a spill from our truck on the road?
That sits between automobile and environmental cover and the answer depends on both wordings. It is exactly the kind of question worth settling before it happens, because arguing about which policy responds is the slowest part of a spill.
Are we responsible for contamination that was already there?
Pre-existing conditions are treated very differently from something you caused, and most policies address them explicitly. If you are working on a site with a known history, say so up front. Disclosing it changes what you can buy. Not disclosing it changes whether it pays.
Two that sit next to this on the same site: what general liability does not cover and the conditions a builders risk policy puts on the site.
Not the question you had? Send the contract clause and the question with it through the quote file and you will get a written answer, not a sales call.
Find out how wide your exclusion is before you break ground.
If your work moves soil or fuel, this is the one gap most likely to be larger than the job that caused it.