This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1890. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This Tacoma property has been in continuous industrial use for approximately 100 years, with foundry operations recorded as early as 1890 and the South Tacoma Car Shops manufacturing and repairing railroad equipment from 1892 through 1974. Historical operations across the site included iron and brass foundries active through 1980, aircraft maintenance and refueling from 1936 to 1973, wood product manufacturing, steel fabrication, plastics manufacturing, and leaded-gasoline storage by Tacoma City Light beginning in 1953. Cleanup activities have included underground storage tank removals by Tacoma City Light and Pioneer Builders Supply, monthly water-level monitoring, quarterly groundwater sampling, and the grouting and abandonment of monitoring wells CBS-13A and CBS-8A. The site has reached No Further Action status. That history could support an insurance cost recovery claim against carriers who issued insurance policies 40+ years ago.
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.
Virtually every contamination-generating operation at this property — foundry work, railroad equipment manufacturing, aircraft refueling, and leaded-gasoline storage — predates 1986 by decades, with some activities stretching back nearly a century. Occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies issued to the multiple industrial operators active during that pre-1986 window carried no effective pollution exclusion under Washington law and remain enforceable today. The documented remediation costs here — underground storage tank removals, long-term groundwater monitoring, and well-abandonment work — are attributable to those historical operations, and the carriers who covered this site's operators before 1986 may still bear obligations for those expenditures.
Restorical's role is to locate viable historical policies, determine whether a successful cost recovery claim is possible, and assist our clients and their legal counsel to obtain insurance coverage for costs already incurred. Restorical's forensic accounting team works to re-establish and document past cleanup expenditures, ensuring the strongest possible basis for recovery.
Recovering Costs from an Older Cleanup
If this site reached No Further Action years ago, the original cleanup expenditures may be difficult to reconstruct. Restorical's forensic accounting team specializes in re-establishing and documenting past cleanup costs — even decades later — to build the strongest possible basis for an insurance recovery claim.
What We Look For
- Historical insurance policies (pre-1986)
- Policy numbers, carrier names, and coverage periods
- Connection between contamination timing and policy period
- Evidence linking cleanup obligation to insured activity
What We Deliver
- Historical Coverage Chart
- Trigger Analysis & Property/Policy Nexus
- Coverage strategy with recommendations
- Insurance funding for your remediation
- Claims Management & Forensic Accounting
The Restorical Proven Process
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Contact UsThis analysis is preliminary and based on publicly available records. Restorical Research is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
