Opinion ID: 51540
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Is properly stored sludge a pollutant?

Text: Next, Motiva argues that a plausible reading of the complaint suggests that the Duriso Plaintiffs were injured not by hydrogen sulfide gas, but by the sludge itself, which Motiva contends is not a pollutant because it was properly stored in the mix tank. Motiva claims that since the workers do not allege the particular mechanism of their exposure to hydrogen sulfide, it is possible that they were injured by skin-to-sludge contact, rather than by inhalation of a gas. If the workers were overcome, for example by heatstroke or a non-pollutant chemical, and subsequently fell into the sludge only then to be injured by contact with hydrogen sulfide, they could not allege injury by a pollutant because heat is not a pollutant under the policy, and any injury sustained would have been caused only by direct contact with the sludge, which Motiva also claims is not a pollutant. Citing Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's London v. C.A. Turner Construction Co., 112 F.3d 184, 186-88 (5th Cir.1997), Motiva contends that the common-sense approach used in this circuit to define what constitutes a pollutant within the meaning of a pollution exclusion clause permits indemnification. Under that approach, the terms of a pollution exclusion clause must be given their ordinary meaning so that the clause is not illogically or impermissibly broadened. See, e.g., id. at 188 (explaining that although Drano is toxic, slipping on the contents of a spilled Drano bottle is not a pollutant-related injury). Motiva suggests that since petroleum products are not pollutants when they are stored where they belong, a hydrogen-sulfide-related injury caused by direct skin-to-sludge contact in the storage tank cannot be considered injury by a pollutant. Although clever, this argument is legally incorrect. Importantly, the policy at issue in Certain Underwriters did not define the term pollutant, see id. at 186, whereas the policy at issue here does define pollutant and does so broadly, see supra, note 3. Additionally, the Certain Underwriters court held that the pollution exclusion in that case did apply because the emission of harmful fumes from gas in a welding pipe is distinguishable from a small spill of Drano. Certain Underwriters, 112 F.3d at 188. Similarly, the Duriso Plaintiffs allege they were exposed to such high levels of toxic substances that brain damage resulted  not a slight exposure that would ordinarily cause no harm. Motiva ignores entirely the substantial body of caselaw holding that substances need not be released into the surrounding environment to qualify as pollutants for purposes of a pollution exclusion clause. See, e.g., id. at 188 (pollution exclusions are not limited to only those discharges causing environmental harm); Hamm v. Allstate Ins. Co., 286 F.Supp.2d 790, 794-95 & n. 2 (N.D.Tex. 2003) (pollution exclusion barred insurer's duty to defend when injury resulted from indoor accumulation of toluene fumes during an office renovation); Zaiontz v. Trinity Universal Ins. Co., 87 S.W.3d 565, 571-72 (Tex.App.2002) (injury caused by odor eliminator chemical that was confined to its proper area of application triggered pollution exclusion). Thus, a pollution exclusion clause applies whenever a pollutant causes harm by a physical mechanism enumerated in the policy, irrespective of where the injury took place or whether the pollutant was released into the environment. Here, as in Zaiontz and Hamm, the area in which the pollutant was properly confined was itself the site of the injury. The fortuity that the locus of storage and injury happen to coincide does not negate the Pollution Exclusion in this instance.