This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1900. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.
This Tacoma property was originally the location of the Buffelen Pipe and Creosote Company (later American Wood Pipe Company), which operated a wood pipe factory with creosoting manufacturing — including log storage, drying kilns, and a creosoting retort — from the early 1900s through the mid-1930s. That retort area is identified as the primary source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination first discovered in 1986. Cleanup activities have included soil and underground storage tank excavations from 1986 through 2005, multi-year environmental investigations from 1992 through 2020, and groundwater monitoring; natural attenuation is confirmed to be occurring, and 30 years of long-term monitoring is projected. Remediation planning is continuing, with a pilot study for remedial injections under active consideration and a full excavation alternative — estimated at $10–20 million — rejected as impractical. 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.
The PAH contamination at this site originated from creosoting operations that concluded in the mid-1930s, placing the contamination event more than five decades before 1986 — well within the era of occurrence-based CGL policies that carried no effective pollution exclusion. The property's remediation record documents the scale of resulting expenditures: nearly two decades of soil and UST excavations, years of groundwater monitoring, and a remedial design process in which the most aggressive option was estimated to cost between $10 million and $20 million before being rejected. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies to the Buffelen Pipe and Creosote Company or to subsequent site operators during the pre-1986 window may remain obligated both to recover documented cleanup costs and to fund the ongoing monitoring and injection-based remediation still ahead.
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.
