This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1890. 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 arsenic, cadmium, lead, and zinc contamination present in these Spokane River shoreline sediments originated from industrial mining and metallurgical operations that spanned the entire pre-1986 period — beginning in the late 1800s and continuing through approximately 1968, well before occurrence-based CGL policies acquired effective pollution exclusions. The Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex operated as the contamination source across decades when those policies were in standard use, making historical carriers potentially obligated to address the cleanup costs that followed. Documented remediation expenditures at this site — sediment capping, revegetation, access controls, and multi-decade monitoring — represent precisely the long-tail environmental liability that pre-1986 policies were designed to cover.

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.