This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility predating 1986. 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 profile here — pentachlorophenol from wood treatment operations, PCBs from former transformers and manufacturing equipment, petroleum hydrocarbons from fueling facilities, and arsenic — is the direct product of industrial operations that predate 1986 by decades. PCBs were banned from manufacture in the United States in 1979 and phased out of new equipment before that, placing the contaminating activities squarely within the era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion. The ongoing Restrictive Covenant obligations — long-term monitoring, containment, and maintenance — represent continuing liabilities that historical carriers who issued CGL policies to the operators during that window may still be required to fund.

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.