This property has a documented history as a public works and maintenance facility going back to 1942. Historical insurance policies issued during operations at this property 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 disposal-area operations that generated the contamination addressed here ran from the late 1950s through the 1970s — the same years occurrence-based CGL policies were still the industry standard and the IRP had not yet been stood up to document what was being buried. When the Installation Restoration Program formally opened its investigation in 1975, contamination had already been accumulating through two decades of active disposal-area use, establishing a pre-1986 trigger that policy language of that era did not exclude. The multi-decade remediation record at Fairchild — spanning excavation, landfill capping, groundwater treatment, vapor extraction, bioremediation, PFAS investigation, and long-term monitoring — represents cleanup costs tied directly to those disposal-area years, and historical carriers who issued policies during that operational window may bear an obligation to fund them.

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.