This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property operated as Arden's Country Store, a combination gasoline and food store in Malott, with underground storage tanks and fuel dispensers serving retail customers. Two older tanks had been inactive since approximately 1968 and 1984, respectively, and were excavated along with contaminated soil in an emergency removal action in 1988; three additional USTs installed between 1985 and 1986 were also identified as sources of gasoline releases. Cleanup under the Standard Cleanup program included a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study, excavation of an estimated 750 cubic yards of contaminated soil, and pump-and-treat groundwater remediation processing approximately 5 million gallons. Ecology issued a No Further Action determination in 2012, though an environmental covenant and periodic reviews remain in place due to residual soil contamination. 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.
Gasoline releases at this property originated from underground storage tanks that were in service well before 1986 — some dating to at least the late 1960s — when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. The documented remediation expenditures here — emergency tank removal, large-scale soil excavation, and a multi-million-gallon groundwater pump-and-treat program — represent the type of long-tail cleanup costs those historical policies were written to cover. Carriers who issued CGL policies during the decades these tanks were actively dispensing fuel may still bear obligation for those costs.
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.
