The Alaska unit of BP PLC has agreed to pay a $125,100 fine in part because it did not have adequate insurance, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.
The agency said Anchorage, Alaska-based BP Exploration Inc. failed to maintain adequate insurance for bodily injury and/or property damage to third parties that might occur as a result of the company’s storage and handling of hazardous waste.
The consent order says the company’s hazardous waste permit requires it to have liability coverage for sudden, accidental occurrences of $1 million per occurrence with an annual aggregate of at least $2 million, exclusive of legal defense costs.
It said BP Exploration did not have adequate insurance between January 2014 and January 2019.
The company also did not label containers of hazardous waste, according to the consent order.
The consent order states the company neither admits nor denies the allegations.
A company spokesman could not be reached for comment.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to a hear a bid by a BP unit to avoid a lawsuit by private landowners in Montana seeking to force the company to pay for a more extensive cleanup of a Superfund hazardous waste site than what federal environmental officials had ordered.
