This property has a documented history as a landfill going back to 1930. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup.
The Tausick Way Landfill was owned and operated by the City of Walla Walla from the 1930s through at least 1977, with aerial photographs from 1949 confirming active landfilling operations. Multiple environmental investigations — J Tech (1998), Shaw EMCON (2004), and Schwin (2005) — documented the site's history and identified contamination including vinyl chloride in groundwater at concentrations exceeding cleanup levels by orders of magnitude, along with VOCs, PAHs, petroleum products, and heavy metals in soil and groundwater. Landfill gas with methane concentrations of 4.6–25.1% has been detected in shallow soils, indicating subsurface gas migration. The site is currently awaiting cleanup under Washington's Standard Cleanup program. That history could support an insurance cost recovery claim against carriers who issued insurance policies 40+ years ago.
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.
Municipal landfilling at this property began in the 1930s and continued for roughly four decades — well within the era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion. The contamination now documented beneath the site — vinyl chloride, volatile organic compounds, PAHs, petroleum products, heavy metals, and migrating landfill gas — represents the kind of gradual, long-duration release those pre-1986 policies were designed to cover. The investigation, remedial design, and cleanup costs this property now faces could plausibly be funded by historical carriers whose policies were in force during the landfill's decades of active operation.
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.
What We Look For
- Historical insurance policies (pre-1986)
- Policy numbers, carrier names, and coverage periods
- Connection between contamination timing and policy period
- Evidence linking cleanup obligation to insured activity
What We Deliver
- Historical Coverage Chart
- Trigger Analysis & Property/Policy Nexus
- Coverage strategy with recommendations
- Insurance funding for your remediation
- Claims Management & Forensic Accounting
The Restorical Proven Process
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Contact UsThis analysis is preliminary and based on publicly available records. Restorical Research is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.