Financial Compensation for Environmental Damage and Spills

• Author: Jamie Benidickson
• Profession: Faculty of Law University of Ottawa
• Pages: 182-193

182

CHAPTER 10

FINANCIAL

COMPENSATION FOR

ENVIRONMENTAL

DAMAGE AND SPILLS

1 For discussion of restoration see the following chapter.

A. THE NATURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL

DAMAGE

Environmental damage and other losses suffered in connection with

accidents or spills, ongoing pollution, general degradation, or the over-

exploitation and mismanagement of resources may take many forms.

Physical contamination of a short-or long-term nature, with or without

destruction of plant and animal life, is an obvious example. In severe

situations it is also possible to imagine that contamination will have

permanently or irreversibly undermined the regenerative capacity of

the affected ecosystem. Insofar as human populations are concerned,

individuals may suffer adverse health effects, physical damage to prop-

erty, or economic losses, singly or in combination. On occasion it is

possible to speak of entire communities as the victims of environmen-

tal harm, arising, for example, from the contamination of food and

water supplies. Financial compensation might then focus on payments

to those who have suffered losses or incurred expenses associated with

remedying environmental damage or taking measures to prevent the

spread of such damage.1

Many aspects of environmental damage as just discussed fall out-

side the scope of compensation as generally understood in the context