This property has a documented history as a landfill going back to 1937. 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 Bellingham shoreline site — landfill gas migration and leachate from decades of municipal solid waste disposal — originated from operations that ceased in 1953, more than thirty years before the 1986 shift away from occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies. Slow, ongoing migration of soil gas and leachate from buried waste is precisely the type of gradual, continuous release that pre-1986 CGL policies were written to cover. Carriers who issued occurrence-based policies to the operators or landowners during the 1937–1953 operational window may still be obligated to fund the remediation expenditures — excavation, capping, gas venting infrastructure, and long-term monitoring — that continue to accumulate at this site.

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.