This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1940. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property operated as a food processing facility from the early 1940s — originally as Nalley's Fine Foods and later as Birds Eye Foods — producing pickles, snack chips, salsa, canned foods, dressings, and peanut butter. Petroleum contamination from underground boiler-fuel storage tanks prompted cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program, including the removal of two USTs in 1990 and excavation of approximately 875 cubic yards of contaminated soil, followed by manual recovery of 80 gallons of free-phase product from monitoring wells between 1994 and 2000. Ongoing remediation consists of soil containment through clean fill and asphalt capping, an Environmental Covenant, and a long-term groundwater monitoring program initiated in 1991 and subject to periodic Ecology review. The site has received a No Further Action determination. 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.
Petroleum releases at this property originated from boiler-fuel storage tanks installed and operated decades before 1986 — the facility had been running since the early 1940s, and a specific UST was installed in 1975 and operated through 1982. Occurrence-based CGL policies issued to the operators during that pre-1986 window carried no effective pollution exclusion under Washington law. The documented remediation expenditures — tank removals, large-scale soil excavation, years of product recovery, capping, and over three decades of groundwater monitoring — represent costs that historical carriers who covered these operations may still be obligated to reimburse.
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.
