This property has a documented history as a bulk fuel distribution terminal going back to 1940. 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.

Fuel storage and transfer operations at these sites began more than four decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were still the industry standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. The petroleum contamination documented across four former fuel farm areas represents the kind of slow, long-duration release that pre-1986 CGL policies were written to cover. The documented remediation expenditures — investigations across 26 release sites, tank closures, product recovery, institutional controls, and years of continuing long-term monitoring — represent both costs already incurred and ongoing obligations that historical carriers who issued policies during those pre-1986 operational decades may be obligated to recover and fund going forward.

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.