This property has a documented history as a landfill predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.

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 unregulated disposal practices and the undocumented UST installation that left petroleum contamination across this right-of-way are consistent with operations predating 1986 — the era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. Lead contamination from landfill fill and weathered gasoline from an unregistered tank represent the kind of slow, ongoing releases those pre-1986 policies were written to address. With cleanup still in progress following more than a decade of documented remediation activity, historical carriers whose policies were in force during the period of active disposal may be obligated both to recover the costs already incurred and to fund the remediation work that remains ahead.

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.