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 — landfill gas migration, impacted soil and slag, and managed groundwater — originated from steel mill and municipal solid waste landfill operations that, given the 1995 Consent Decree governing a facility already described as former and closed, almost certainly predate 1986 by decades. Occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies in force during that pre-1986 operational window carried no effective pollution exclusion and remain enforceable today. The remediation expenditures documented at this site — engineered containment and capping, gas collection and treatment systems, and ongoing long-term monitoring — represent costs that historical carriers who issued policies to the operators of Seattle Steel and the landfill may be obligated to recover.

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.