This property has a documented history as a dry cleaning facility going back to 1962. 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.

Dry cleaning operations at this site trace to the 1960s, placing the origin of the PCE contamination firmly in the era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. The slow, subsurface migration of PCE — a hallmark of historical dry-cleaning releases — is precisely the type of continuing loss those pre-1986 policies were written to cover. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies during that operational window may bear obligations both to fund the ongoing bioremediation and monitoring and to recover costs already incurred through more than a decade of active cleanup work.

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.