This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
A former owner of this single-family residential property in Black Diamond stored electrical equipment on site, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) leaked from that equipment into the surrounding soil. Under the Voluntary Cleanup Program, approximately 142 tons of PCB-contaminated soil were excavated between January and February 2009 at depths of 1.5 to 3.5 feet, a groundwater monitoring well was installed, and the project reached completion by June 2010 with 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.
PCBs were banned from production and new use in the United States by 1979, placing the contamination-causing activity — storage of PCB-containing electrical equipment — squarely within the era of occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies that carried no effective pollution exclusion. The documented remediation costs at this property, including excavation of 142 tons of contaminated soil and groundwater monitoring, are the type of environmental cleanup expenditures that historical CGL carriers may be obligated to cover under policies in force when the PCB release first occurred.
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.