This property has a documented history as a dry cleaning 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 dry cleaning operations responsible for the contamination at this property began in 1969, more than fifteen years before the insurance industry began writing effective pollution exclusions into occurrence-based CGL policies. The chlorinated-solvent plume here — PCE and TCE at concentrations up to 500 times cleanup levels, with breakdown products DCE and vinyl chloride spreading through groundwater — reflects the kind of slow, continuous release that pre-1986 carriers insured without restriction. With the site still in active cleanup, full remediation costs remain ahead, and historical policies issued to operators during that pre-1986 operational window may be available both to recover expenditures already incurred and to fund the work still to come.

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.