This property has a documented history as a property with a heating oil tank going back to 1938. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.
The Hi Country Foods processing plant in Selah has been in operation since at least 1938, with boiler heating fuel — Bunker C and Bunker 2 — stored in a 1,000-gallon underground steel tank that was abandoned and decommissioned in 1983. Recent construction at the plant uncovered a historical release of petroleum product from that closed-in-place UST; two 6,000-gallon USTs were also removed from an adjacent property. Cleanup activities under the Voluntary Cleanup Program have included tank basin excavation, sewer-line excavation, investigative borings, approximately one year of floating-product recovery via a skimming pump, institutional controls in the form of a restrictive covenant, and the installation of monitoring wells now subject to a multi-year, ongoing monitoring requirement — with indefinite monitoring required for some wells. 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.
The boiler heating fuel release at this property originated from a storage tank that was operational from at least the late 1930s through its decommissioning in 1983 — entirely within the era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were written without an effective pollution exclusion. Cleanup is ongoing, with indefinite monitoring requirements for some wells representing future remediation expenditures in addition to costs already incurred. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies to plant operators during that pre-1986 operational window may be obligated both to recover documented cleanup expenditures and to fund the monitoring and interim remediation work still 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.
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.
