This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1910. 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 at this property — petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, metals including lead, and volatile organic compounds — originates from shipyard, dockyard, lumberyard, and asphalt operations that began in the 1910s and persisted through multiple operator generations, all of them predating 1986 by decades. Occurrence-based CGL policies issued during that long pre-1986 industrial window carried no effective pollution exclusion under Washington law and remain enforceable against the carriers who wrote them. The documented remediation trail here — soil excavation, groundwater management, and a series of major demolitions spanning more than a decade — represents both past expenditures and ongoing costs that historical carriers may be obligated 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.