This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1919. 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.

Gasoline station operations at this property date to 1919 — more than six decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies began incorporating effective pollution exclusions. The contamination here is directly attributed to releases from those pre-1986 underground storage tank operations, precisely the slow, historic release pattern that early CGL policies were written to cover. The site's documented remediation costs — ten UST removals, excavation of over a thousand tons of impacted soil, and pending vapor extraction and further excavation — represent expenditures that historical carriers whose policies were in force during those decades of operation may be obligated both to recover and 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.