This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1960. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property was developed between 1947 and 1949 and served as the manufacturing home of Nicholson Manufacturing Company from the 1960s until 2001, producing heavy machinery — sawmills, board mills, chip mills, and winches — for the lumber, paper, and wood-products industries. An interim action in 2008 involved the excavation and off-site disposal of 2,990 tons of contaminated soil from two source areas, removal of a 2,000-gallon heating oil underground storage tank along with 45 tons of associated soil, demolition of aboveground structures, and decommissioning of five groundwater monitoring wells. Groundwater compliance monitoring continued through January 2015, after which the site received a No Further Action determination under the Voluntary Cleanup Program. 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.
Manufacturing operations at this property began in the 1960s, more than two decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. The contamination documented here — attributed to historical sandblasting operations and fill material accumulated over decades of industrial use — is the kind of slow-developing, pre-regulatory release those policies were written to cover. The remediation expenditures incurred at this site, nearly 3,000 tons of excavated soil, a UST removal, structural demolition, well decommissioning, and years of groundwater monitoring, represent costs that historical carriers whose CGL policies were active during the Nicholson era may still be obligated to recover.
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.