This property has a documented history as a landfill predating 1986. 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 landfill's peak gas generation in 1965 places its heaviest period of solid waste disposal more than two decades before 1986, when the SVE system that now manages its continuing emissions was first commissioned. Carriers who wrote occurrence-based CGL policies during those peak operational years in the 1960s and 1970s had no effective pollution exclusion and may bear liability for the contamination those operations set in motion. Because new extraction wells and expanded groundwater monitoring remain planned, the remediation costs attributable to those pre-1986 disposal operations are ongoing — making historical policy recovery both a backward-looking and a forward-looking proposition.

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.