This property has a documented history as a landfill going back to 1951. 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.

Waste disposal at this landfill — including industrial wastes accepted over decades of operation — began more than thirty years before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were the prevailing form of liability coverage and carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. The contamination attributable to the site's history of industrial and septic waste disposal is precisely the type of slow, diffuse release those pre-1986 policies were written to address. Investigation and remediation costs that lie ahead for this closed landfill could plausibly be funded by historical carriers whose policies were in force during the decades of active disposal operations.

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.