This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1938. Historical insurance policies issued during operations at this property and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
Bloch Steel Industries has operated as a scrap iron recycling facility and steel distribution company at this property since 1938, with buildings on site dating to 1930 and 1949. An underground storage tank used to store diesel fuel for operational support leaked petroleum into soil and groundwater over decades of use. Cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program began in 1992 with the removal of the UST and 233.90 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil, followed by on-site land farming, landfill disposal, groundwater monitoring, and free product removal from wells through 1999. Ecology issued a No Further Action determination in 2011. 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.
The diesel fuel contamination at this site traces to an underground storage tank that had been in service for over thirty years before its removal in 1992 — placing its operation squarely within the era of occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies that carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. Nearly two decades of documented remediation costs — tank removal, soil excavation and treatment, groundwater monitoring, and free product recovery — were incurred to address releases tied directly to those pre-1986 industrial operations. Historical carriers who wrote CGL policies covering this facility during that window may still be obligated to reimburse those cleanup expenditures.
Restorical's role is to locate viable historical policies, determine whether a successful cost recovery claim is possible, and assist our clients and their legal counsel to obtain insurance coverage for costs already incurred. Restorical's forensic accounting team works to re-establish and document past cleanup expenditures, ensuring the strongest possible basis for recovery.
Recovering Costs from an Older Cleanup
If this site reached No Further Action years ago, the original cleanup expenditures may be difficult to reconstruct. Restorical's forensic accounting team specializes in re-establishing and documenting past cleanup costs — even decades later — to build the strongest possible basis for an insurance recovery claim.
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.
