This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1965. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property at 2150 Taylor Way in Tacoma was developed in 1965 and hosted a succession of industrial tenants over the following decades, including a lumber company, Christopher Tool & Die, Pederson Boat Building Company, and Greer Steel — a fabricator that specialized in manufacturing underground storage tanks. Contamination was traced to storage sheds where liquid fiberglass resins and petroleum products had been kept on site. Cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program in 1993 included excavation and off-site disposal of 192 tons of contaminated soil and removal of 1,900 gallons of contaminated groundwater. A restrictive covenant recorded in 1998 limits the property to traditional industrial uses and manages residual contamination, with regulatory review documented through at least 2012. 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.
Industrial operations at this site — fiberglass resin storage, petroleum product handling, and steel fabrication involving underground storage tanks — began in 1965 and continued through the mid-to-late 1980s, spanning the entire era when occurrence-based CGL policies were the industry standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion. The styrene and hexachlorobutadiene contamination documented here is explicitly tied to those pre-1986 operations, not to any later incident. Documented remediation costs — soil excavation, groundwater removal, and a long-term restrictive covenant — were incurred to address releases that historical carriers whose policies covered those industrial operators may remain obligated to fund.
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.
