This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1969. 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 contamination here traces entirely to industrial waste disposal conducted between 1969 and 1974 — more than a decade before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies issued to operators like Occidental Chemical Corporation still carried no effective pollution exclusion. Lime sludge and baghouse grit deposited during those years are the documented source of the VOC, metal, and dissolved-gas contamination now subject to long-term groundwater monitoring and permanent institutional controls. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies to the depositing operators during that pre-1986 window may be obligated to recover the documented remediation expenditures: excavation of 18,000 cubic yards of impacted material, construction of an engineered landfill, and ongoing performance monitoring.

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.