This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup.

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 profile here — lead, chromium, and arsenic alongside diesel hydrocarbons and solvents — reflects the kind of contamination that accumulates over years of industrial painting and sandblasting operations, not a single reportable spill. The 1998 assessment's characterization of the sandblast grit as 'old' is the clearest marker in the record that the contamination-generating activity predates the 1990 report by a meaningful margin, placing the operative releases within the pre-1986 window when occurrence-based CGL policies were issued to industrial operators like Interstate Coatings without effective pollution exclusions. The full remediation costs the site still faces — design, excavation, and long-term monitoring for a multi-contaminant industrial site — are precisely the category of future expenditure those historical policies may be obligated to fund.

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.