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.
This property operated first as a gravel pit through the 1940s or 1950s, then as the Lynden Garbage Dump — a municipal landfill owned and operated by the City of Lynden — until the Bellingham-Whatcom County District Board of Health voted to close it in 1981. An arsenic plume linked to the landfill operation has been confirmed, with groundwater and surface water monitoring continuing through at least 2015; a building associated with the site was removed as part of remedial work. In 2013, the City of Lynden purchased an adjacent property for $725,000, a transaction likely driven by the contamination footprint, and the site remains in Standard Cleanup review awaiting active remediation. 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.
The ERTS record for this site lists a contamination incident date of January 1, 1977 — placing the documented origin of the arsenic plume in the middle of the City of Lynden's active landfill operations and well within the era when occurrence-based CGL policies issued to municipal solid-waste operators carried no effective pollution exclusion. The City's $725,000 property acquisition in 2013 signals that the contamination footprint extends beyond the landfill boundary itself, and the investigation and remediation costs that remain ahead are the precise category of liability those pre-1986 municipal policies were written to cover.
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.
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.
