This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1892. 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 at this site — arsenic, lead, and associated heavy metals — is the direct product of smelting and ore-refining operations that concluded more than seven decades before 1986, when occurrence-based CGL policies remained the industry standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion. Historical carriers who issued such policies to operators of the smelter or the arsenic processing plant during the facility's active years may be obligated to contribute to remediation expenditures. With projected cleanup costs reaching up to $20.4 million and active work still ahead, both recovery of past interim-action costs and funding for future remediation are plausibly within scope for historical insurance claims.

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.