This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1947. 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 heavy petroleum contamination at this site — diesel, bunker C oil, and kerosene — originated from tank installations and operations that predated 1986 by decades, squarely within the era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion. The contamination is not tied to a single accident but to long-running overfills and leaking fittings from USTs active from the mid-1950s onward, creating the kind of gradual, multi-year release those pre-1986 policies were written to cover. The documented remediation costs — tank removals, soil excavation, groundwater treatment, and over thirty years of quarterly monitoring — represent expenditures the historical carriers 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.