This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1889. 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.

More than five decades of metal mining and flotation milling at this property deposited lead, zinc, and silver-bearing compounds into the surrounding soil and water — contamination that originated decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies still carried no effective pollution exclusion. The cleanup costs the property now faces have not yet been incurred, which means historical carriers whose policies covered the operators of this site during those pre-1986 extraction years may be in a position to fund the remediation work to come. The direct tie between the documented ore-processing operations and the contamination profile here is exactly the fact pattern those policies were written to address.

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.