This property has a documented history as a landfill going back to 1954. 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.

All documented contamination at this property is tied to landfilling and burning operations conducted between 1954 and 1968 — entirely within the era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion. The gradual, diffuse nature of waste deposited in open unlined trenches over fourteen years is precisely the type of slow release those pre-1986 policies were written to address. Documented remediation expenditures — subsurface excavations, soil sampling, waste characterization, decontamination, and the implementation of long-term land use controls — represent costs that historical carriers whose policies were in force during those operational decades may be obligated both to recover and to fund going forward.

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.