This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1947. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup.
Blue Banner Foods was established at this Kent property by 1947, when building permits were issued for a food processing facility that produced salad dressing, mayonnaise, and pie fillings using vegetable oils and related materials stored in underground tanks. Kent Fire Department records from 1974 document a 1,000-gallon underground storage tank on the property, consistent with decades of ingredient storage. The site has been listed on Ecology's Contaminated Sites List for over seventeen years and enrolled in the Voluntary Cleanup Program for more than seven of those years; excavation and disposal of saturated oily soils has been recommended at an estimated cost of $60 to $80 per ton, and that work has not yet commenced. 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 oily soil contamination at this property traces directly to vegetable oil storage and food processing operations that began in 1947 — nearly four decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies stopped reliably covering pollution claims in Washington State. Carriers who issued pre-1986 CGL coverage to Blue Banner Foods during its long operational history wrote those policies without effective pollution exclusions, and that coverage may still be enforceable today. The excavation costs now facing this property — calculated by the ton across contaminated soil at this former industrial food processing site — represent exactly the kind of forward-looking remediation obligation that historical carriers could be compelled to fund.
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.
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.
