This property has a documented history as a dry cleaning facility predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.

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 tetrachloroethylene contamination at this site traces directly to dry cleaning operations that ran for at least a decade — and possibly longer — before 1986, when occurrence-based CGL policies carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. PCE contamination of the type documented here — slow solvent infiltration through soil into groundwater — is precisely the slow-release scenario those pre-1986 policies were written to address. Historical carriers who issued CGL coverage during the operational window of this facility may be obligated to fund remediation costs already incurred through excavation, vapor extraction, and years of monitoring, as well as the groundwater treatment work that still lies ahead.

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.