This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1914. 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.

Contamination at this property — led by TCE exceedances of over 4,000 times the cleanup level — traces directly to machining and metal-fabricating operations that ran from 1960 into the late 1990s, with the site's industrial and dry cleaning history extending to 1914, decades before 1986, when occurrence-based CGL policies still lacked effective pollution exclusions. Stoddard solvent and lead contamination tied to those same pre-1986 operational periods compound the liability picture. The documented remediation expenditures — large-scale soil excavation, engineered capping, vapor controls, and long-term groundwater monitoring — represent costs that historical carriers covering this site's operations prior to 1986 may be obligated both to recover and to fund as work continues.

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.