This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1974. 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.

Contamination at this site traces to industrial waste filling that began in the late 1960s and to solvent and petroleum recycling operations that ran from 1974 through 1999 — the productive span of the facility falls squarely within the era when occurrence-based CGL policies were issued without effective pollution exclusions. The scope of the remediation record here — EPA intervention, tank farm excavations, recovery of thousands of drums, and a proposed two-acre cap-and-vapor-barrier system — reflects cleanup costs that have accumulated across decades of continuous industrial activity. Historical carriers whose CGL policies were in force during those operations may be obligated both to recover the documented expenditures already incurred and to fund the substantial remediation that remains ahead.

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.