This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup.

Why Historical Insurance Policies May Be Accessible

Pre-1986 Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies were occurrence-based and did not contain an effective pollution exclusion in Washington. If contamination occurred while those policies were active, those historical insurance carriers may still have a legal obligation to fund the cleanup costs, even if the business closed or the property changed hands.

The contamination at this site — creosote residues from hundreds of treated timber piles and petroleum-affected materials in a subsurface vault — is the direct legacy of industrial marine operations that ran for decades before 1986. Occurrence-based CGL policies issued to the facility's prior operators during that pre-1986 operational window had no effective pollution exclusion in Washington and remain enforceable today. The remediation costs the current owner now faces — pier and pile demolition, vault dewatering, sediment characterization, and potential seafloor remediation — could plausibly be funded by historical carriers whose policies were in force when these structures were actively in use.

Restorical's role is to locate viable historical policies, determine whether a successful coverage claim is possible, and assist our clients and their legal counsel to obtain insurance coverage. Restorical then manages the claim, including accounting, to ensure the cleanup is funded in a timely manner.