This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1951. 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.

Petroleum contamination at this property originated from underground storage tanks installed in the early 1950s to fuel Associated Grocers' truck fleet — more than three decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies still carried no effective pollution exclusion. The scale of documented remediation expenditures here is substantial: multiple rounds of tank removal, years of free product recovery, a 12,000-ton soil excavation, groundwater recovery, and ongoing monitoring across more than two decades. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies during that pre-1986 operational window may be obligated both to recover past cleanup costs and to fund the remedial work that remains ahead.

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.