Revenues in our environmental businesses, which represent more than 80% of total Harsco revenue, were up 15% versus the second quarter.
The degree of employee compliance with our global COVID-related principles is quite high, and has served to counter the worrisome trends across the general populations of the more than 30 countries in which we operate.
In the third quarter, Harsco's revenues totaled $509 million, and adjusted EBITDA totaled $59 million.
Our revenues increased 14% over the second quarter of this year with each of our businesses realizing a nice improvement in revenues from the second quarter when we believe the impacts of the pandemic peaked for most of our end markets.
The sequential improvement in revenue ranged from a 20% increase at Clean Earth, to a 9% increase at Harsco Environmental.
Our third quarter adjusted EBITDA of $59 million is consistent with our expectations in August and is comparable to our adjusted EBITDA result in Q2, despite the unfavorable timing impact of certain expenditures we discussed on our earnings call last quarter.
These incremental items consisting largely of the timing of insurance and compensation related amounts, negatively affected the quarter-on-quarter comps by approximately $10 million.
Our EBITDA in the third quarter of 2019 totaled $87 million.
Harsco's adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations for the third quarter was $0.08.
And lastly, our free cash flow totaled $18 million in Q3, a strong performance considering that this figure is net of approximately $14 million of tax-related outflows that we had deferred from the second quarter.
This figure compares with free cash flow of $5 million in the third quarter of 2019.
And year-to-date, our free cash flow is now $10 million positive, significantly improved from 2019.
Revenues totaled $223 million and adjusted EBITDA was $40 million, translating to a margin of 18%.
This EBITDA figure compares to $60 million in the prior year with the change driven by pandemic effects on the demand for services and applied products as well as related impacts on new site ramp-ups.
Steel output at our customer sites declined approximately 6% on a continuing site basis compared with the prior year quarter.
Relative to the second quarter of this year, Harsco Environmental's revenues rose 9% on a similar improvement in steel volumes.
However, as I mentioned earlier, the comp to Q2 was negatively impacted by the timing of expenses, which totaled approximately $5 million for HE.
Harsco Environmental's free cash flow totaled $32 million in the quarter and now totaled $64 million for the year.
This year-to-date figure compares with free cash flow of $10 million in the prior year.
For the quarter, revenues were $194 million, and adjusted EBITDA totaled $20 million.
Relative to the second quarter of 2020, revenues increased roughly 20% with ESOL and legacy Clean Earth experiencing similar improvements.
ESOL contributed nearly $130 million of revenue in the quarter.
Last quarter, I mentioned that we expect to realize approximately $5 million of benefits in 2020 from our initiatives.
The segment's free cash flow totaled $17 million in the quarter and year-to-date, it now stands at $38 million versus adjusted EBITDA of $42 million.
Rail revenues increased to $93 million, while the segment's adjusted EBITDA declined to $5 million in the third quarter.
As a result, Rail's backlog remains robust, totaling more than $450 million at the end of the quarter.
Our leverage, as expected stood at 4.5 times and our liquidity totaled $325 million at the end of the quarter.
Reducing our leverage is a top priority for us and our goal remains to reduce our leverage to below 2.5 times within a couple of years.
However, with this in mind and based on the current market environment, we see fourth quarter total Harsco adjusted EBITDA ranging from $58 million to $63 million.
Also, we expect our free cash flow to be between $20 million and $25 million in the fourth quarter.
And this outcome would place our free cash flow for the full year north of $30 million.

Summary:
In the third quarter, Harsco's revenues totaled $509 million, and adjusted EBITDA totaled $59 million.
Harsco's adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations for the third quarter was $0.08.
However, with this in mind and based on the current market environment, we see fourth quarter total Harsco adjusted EBITDA ranging from $58 million to $63 million.