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 recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property operated as an offset web printing facility within the Brashler Industrial Park in Marysville, Washington, and is identified in investigation records as a former industrial production site. Cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program included removal of cadmium-contaminated sediments from a catch basin and outfall pipe, confirmation sampling, and multi-year groundwater investigation and monitoring from 2003 through 2005 for dissolved diesel, metals, and arsenic. The site reached No Further Action status subject to a Restrictive Covenant that prohibits groundwater extraction without regulatory approval and establishes permanent institutional controls. 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 contamination documented here — cadmium, arsenic, and petroleum hydrocarbons in soil and groundwater — is characteristic of long-running industrial operations of the kind that predate the pollution-exclusion language that became standard in Commercial General Liability policies after 1986. If the facility's offset web printing operations commenced before that threshold, occurrence-based CGL policies issued to operators during that window would have provided pollution coverage with no effective exclusion. The remediation expenditures incurred under the VCP — sediment excavation, extensive groundwater investigation, and the permanent institutional controls now encumbering the property — represent documented cleanup costs that historical carriers may 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.
