This property has a documented history as a landfill going back to 1939. 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 Camp Murray landfill received waste for roughly four decades before closing in 1979 — years before occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies stopped reliably covering pollution claims in Washington. The slow, latent migration of landfill-derived constituents into groundwater is precisely the kind of release those pre-1986 policies were written to address. The cleanup costs the responsible parties will face as this site advances toward active remediation could plausibly be funded by historical carriers whose policies were in force during the landfill's four-decade operating period.

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.