This property has a documented history as a landfill predating 1986. 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 here originates from landfilling that ended before the 1970s concluded — well before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies still carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. Creosote-treated timbers and decomposing wood wastes generating hydrogen sulfide and methane represent precisely the kind of slow, diffuse subsurface release those policies were written to address. The multi-phase remediation now in progress — fill excavation, groundwater treatment, stormwater controls, and long-term monitoring — represents both costs already incurred and expenditures still to come, all of which historical carriers who issued CGL policies during the active filling era may be obligated both to recover and to fund going forward.

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.