EVERETT — The Port of Everett has won a $1.5 million settlement from a former insurance company to help it cover environmental cleanup costs.
The settlement from Consolidated American stems from a civil lawsuit in Snohomish County against three insurers that seeks reimbursement for cleanups related to several port projects.
The port is still pursuing the lawsuit against the other two insurance carriers and will be in a mediation session today.
Lawyer Brad Cattle, who represents the port, said it filed suit against Consolidated, The Hartford, and a London insurance consortium after the firms failed to pay the claims.
"There were fairly extended periods of discussions that tried to get to a resolution," Cattle said. "It just seemed that in order to get to the point where the parties are seriously evaluating" the claims, a lawsuit was necessary, he said.
The Everett waterfront has seen heavy industrial use for 100 years.
"Historical uses of commercial and industrial property certainly were not as regulated as they are today, and were not as nonpolluting as they are today," he said. "These actions occurred some time ago and are now getting resolved."
Projects requiring cleanup included dredging near piers 1 and 3, construction at the south terminal, development of the Riverside Business Park at an old Weyerhaeuser site, and work still to be done in the $200 million redevelopment of the north marina.
Cattle said the insurers have contended that insurers who were paid by the companies that created the contamination should be pursued to pay for the cleanup costs, and that some of the remediation work, such as a dike that created more land near the south terminal, actually benefited the port.
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