This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1917. Historical insurance policies issued during operations at this property and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.
This property has hosted continuous heavy industrial operations since 1917, including sawmill operations, a galvanizing plant, wood preserving using heated arsenic and copper-zinc sulfate solutions — with process fluids discharged directly to the ground surface — steel fabrication, and aircraft manufacturing after Boeing acquired part of the site in 1984. Cleanup under Agreed Orders has included soil excavation of up to 3,000 cubic yards and 900 tons, removal of underground and aboveground storage tanks and sumps, stabilization of 20,000 cubic yards of soil, asphalt capping, in-place decommissioning of tanks using concrete slurry, and catch basin rerouting. Investigation and monitoring activities have been ongoing from at least 1991 through 2014 and beyond, and remediation continues. 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 contamination at this site — metals from decades of wood preserving and galvanizing, carcinogenic PAHs from hydraulic oil releases — traces to operations that began nearly seven decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were the industry standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion. The successive operators who ran sawmills, wood treatment, galvanizing, and steel fabrication through that pre-1986 window were insured under policies that remain enforceable in Washington. With remediation already spanning more than two decades and cleanup still underway, the documented and future costs — excavation, stabilization, capping, long-term monitoring — represent obligations the historical carriers may be required both to reimburse and to continue funding.
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.
