A Louisiana court ruled that pollution exclusions in commercial general liability insurance only protect insurers from claims by companies actively causing pollution, not from claims by people merely exposed to pollutants released by someone else. In this case, residents harmed by contaminated water couldn't be denied coverage just because the water system was incidentally exposed to a refinery's discharge. This matters to subcontractors because it means your insurance may still cover you if you're harmed by third-party pollution, even if your policy has a pollution exclusion clause.
Pollution exclusions in your CGL policy protect insurers only against active polluters, not passive exposure to third-party contamination