This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1975. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.
This property operated as a magnesium recovery facility from 1975 to 1986 under Phoenix Resource Recovery, Inc., where sludge bars were crushed and ground to extract magnesium granules. The remaining sludge bar residue — classified as dangerous waste due to its chloride and nitride compounds — contaminated the site, prompting emergency actions including drum storage and waste pile cover repair, source material removal, and installation of a water management system to collect and treat surface runoff and groundwater. A Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study has been completed, and the site is now in long-term performance monitoring under Ecology's 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.
Contamination at this site originated from industrial magnesium recovery operations that ran entirely within the pre-1986 window, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. Documented remediation expenditures — including at least $80,577 in identified costs for 1993–1994 operations alone, plus decades of source removal, water treatment, and ongoing monitoring — trace directly to releases from those covered-period operations. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies to the facility's operators between 1975 and 1986 may be obligated to recover past cleanup costs and to fund the monitoring program that continues today.
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.