This property has a documented history as a landfill going back to 1948. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property served as a city-operated landfill from 1948 to 1967, accepting municipal, construction, and possible agricultural wastes. The City of Wenatchee filed a CERCLA Section 103(c) notification in 1981 documenting the site's waste-handling history. A Preliminary Assessment was completed in 1985, followed by a Site Inspection in 1987 that collected water samples from the culvert running through the park — no detectable volatile organics or pesticides/PCBs were found, and the site received an HRS score of 18.87, leading to a recommendation of no further action. 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.
Landfill operations at this property ran continuously from 1948 to 1967, placing nearly two decades of waste-receiving activity squarely within the era of occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies that carried no effective pollution exclusion. The investigation costs incurred here — the CERCLA notification process, the 1985 Preliminary Assessment, and the 1987 Site Inspection — arose from contamination concerns tied directly to those pre-1986 operations. Historical carriers who provided CGL coverage during the landfill's operational years may be obligated to reimburse those investigation expenditures.
Restorical's role is to locate viable historical policies, determine whether a successful cost recovery claim is possible, and assist our clients and their legal counsel to obtain insurance coverage for costs already incurred. Restorical's forensic accounting team works to re-establish and document past cleanup expenditures, ensuring the strongest possible basis for recovery.
Recovering Costs from an Older Cleanup
If this site reached No Further Action years ago, the original cleanup expenditures may be difficult to reconstruct. Restorical's forensic accounting team specializes in re-establishing and documenting past cleanup costs — even decades later — to build the strongest possible basis for an insurance recovery claim.
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.