This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1910. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup.

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 — mine waste and mine-influenced water laden with heavy metals from decades of ore extraction and milling — originated entirely from operations that concluded more than thirty years before 1986. Industrial operators in the mining and milling sector during that era were typically covered by occurrence-based CGL policies that carried no effective pollution exclusion. With EPA-planned remediation of tailings impoundments still ahead and no reclamation undertaken at the mine itself, the prospective cleanup expenditures here are substantial, and the historical carriers who issued policies during the site's operational decades may carry obligations toward those future costs.

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.