This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1973. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.
This property operated as an industrial manufacturing facility producing plastic buoys and fenders for watercraft, with a 2,500-gallon single-wall steel underground storage tank supplying di-2-ethylhexyl adipate — a plasticizer piped directly to the manufacturing floor. The UST was excavated and removed in March 1998, at which time groundwater contamination was detected in the excavation water. Despite the tank removal, the site remained on Ecology's Hazardous Sites List as of April 2013, indicating unresolved contamination requiring further action under the Standard Cleanup program. 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 contamination at this property traces to an industrial process tank whose single-wall steel construction and long service life place its installation decades before 1986, squarely within the era of occurrence-based Commercial General Liability coverage with no effective pollution exclusion. Cleanup costs here — UST removal, groundwater investigation, and the remediation still required to clear the Hazardous Sites List — stem directly from releases tied to those pre-1986 manufacturing operations. Historical carriers who covered the facility during that operational window may be obligated both to recover past remediation expenditures and to fund the cleanup work that remains.
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.