This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1908. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property has been in industrial use since approximately 1908, with documented occupants including PACCAR and the CPS Railway Company, the U.S. Department of Defense during the WWII era, and The Boeing Company, which operated aeronautic engineering and manufacturing facilities on the site through at least the early 1960s and continuing until 2005. Boeing's operations encompassed wood working, metal working, plastics injection, painting, waste accumulation, laboratory work, and manufacturing preparation — activities that introduced arsenic, vinyl chloride, and pentachlorophenol into soil and groundwater. Cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program included the excavation and off-site disposal of 20,835 cubic yards of arsenic-contaminated soil, confirmatory sampling, installation of groundwater monitoring wells in 2008, and five consecutive quarters of quarterly groundwater sampling through 2009, after which the site received No Further Action status. That history could support an insurance cost recovery claim against carriers who issued insurance policies 40+ years ago.
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.
Industrial operations at this property stretch back more than a century, with manufacturing activities producing arsenic, vinyl chloride, and pentachlorophenol contamination that was present in soil and groundwater long before 1986. Occurrence-based CGL policies issued to the various industrial operators across the pre-1986 decades had no effective pollution exclusion and remain enforceable against the carriers that issued them. The documented remediation costs here — excavation of nearly 21,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, multi-year groundwater monitoring, and the investigative work underlying a Voluntary Cleanup Program closure — represent expenditures that historical carriers whose policies were in force during the WWII-era through Boeing operational window may still be obligated to recover.
Restorical's role is to locate viable historical policies, determine whether a successful cost recovery claim is possible, and assist our clients and their legal counsel to obtain insurance coverage for costs already incurred. Restorical's forensic accounting team works to re-establish and document past cleanup expenditures, ensuring the strongest possible basis for recovery.
Recovering Costs from an Older Cleanup
If this site reached No Further Action years ago, the original cleanup expenditures may be difficult to reconstruct. Restorical's forensic accounting team specializes in re-establishing and documenting past cleanup costs — even decades later — to build the strongest possible basis for an insurance recovery claim.
What We Look For
- Historical insurance policies (pre-1986)
- Policy numbers, carrier names, and coverage periods
- Connection between contamination timing and policy period
- Evidence linking cleanup obligation to insured activity
What We Deliver
- Historical Coverage Chart
- Trigger Analysis & Property/Policy Nexus
- Coverage strategy with recommendations
- Insurance funding for your remediation
- Claims Management & Forensic Accounting
The Restorical Proven Process
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Contact UsThis analysis is preliminary and based on publicly available records. Restorical Research is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
