This property has a documented history as a landfill going back to 1973. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
Klickitat County operated the Horsethief Landfill for approximately 17 years — from around 1973 until its closure on November 1, 1990 — for solid waste disposal. Following closure, a Closure/Post-Closure Plan was implemented governing a 20-year post-closure period, with required activities including installation of a low-permeability cap, grading, seeding, stormwater management, leachate control, and landfill gas control and monitoring. A financial assurance account was established to fund ongoing groundwater monitoring and system maintenance obligations. Sampling conducted in April 1991 found no volatile organic compounds in groundwater or surface water. 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 Horsethief Landfill was actively receiving solid waste for more than a decade before 1986, the year occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies began incorporating effective pollution exclusions. Landfill operations — solid waste disposal, leachate generation, and landfill gas production — are precisely the slow-release, long-tail contamination scenarios those pre-1986 CGL policies were written to cover. The post-closure obligations documented here — cap installation, leachate and gas controls, two decades of groundwater monitoring, and a funded financial assurance account — are costs that trace directly to landfilling activities conducted during that pre-1986 operational window, making historical carriers a plausible avenue for recovery.
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.
