Last year, residents of Dundalk, Md., were deluged by an eruption in a 6-foot water main, sending hundreds of residents scrambling to their insurance companies for help.

On Tuesday (Feb. 2), members of the Maryland House Economic Matters committee were soaked with opposition from insurance companies operating in the state to a bill mandating that they offer protection for such instances in the future.

Jolene Ivey

At a hearing on HB 55, Del. Jolene Ivey (D-Prince George’s) introduced her bill, requiring an offer by insurers at the time of a new application or a renewal for coverage resulting from damage from water backing up through sewers or drains inside or outside the home, as well as water discharged from a water or sewerage system.

Ivey said such coverage is not guaranteed and pointed to several Dundalk residents who faced tens of thousands of dollars in damage to their homes that could have been avoided if they knew such protection was offered.

“I had a good insurance agent and a rider [for coverage] for $30 a year,” said Carl Persiani, a Dundalk resident who testified on behalf of the bill. “Not a lot of people knew of this rider …and this [bill] is a great start to something to help people get coverage.”

The bill also received support from the Maryland Insurance Administration and the Maryland Attorney General’s Office. Assistant Attorney General Susan Cohen, representing the People’s Insurance Counsel, told legislators that unless coverage for floods are secured through the federal National Flood Insurance Program, which has a number of limitations, consumers are left without coverage.

“Undoubtedly, any homeowner would want to buy coverage after seeing what happened in Dundalk,” she said.

‘It’s God’s lightning’

But while consumers and state regulators supported Ivey’s bill, a handful of the state’s biggest property-casualty insurers, including State Farm, Allstate and Liberty Mutual, voiced their opposition.

Jack Andryszak, a lobbyist for the American Insurers Association, said coverage for a ruptured sewer line is non-existent anywhere because the obligation for its maintenance lies with the municipality, which should know the age and condition of such lines.

His sentiments were echoed by Minor Carter, representing Liberty Mutual and the Maryland Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, who said there would be no way to price such a product.

“Unless insurance companies grade these lines …I’d have no idea how to price it,” he said. “You are asking for us to cover risk with no rational way to judge risk of failure.”

Del. Joseph J. Minnick (D-Baltimore Co.) asked the insurers about fallen trees. Specifically, he cited trees in Baltimore on city property that fall due to wind or lightning that are covered and asked why water and sewer mains are not the same.

“The difference, in my opinion, is that it is God’s tree and God’s lightning, but it is the city’s water main,” Andryszak said. “No one has control over wind an lightning, but the city, theoretically, knows how old the mains are and if there is a leak, and has the obligation to maintain it.”

The committee is expected to vote on whether to forward the bill to the entire House of Delegates at a later date.