This property has a documented history as a public works and maintenance facility predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
The Sequim Bay State Park facility, operated by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, maintained underground storage tanks to support park operations until a release of heavy oil contaminated the soil beneath the site. Remediation under the Voluntary Cleanup Program included UST removal in 1999, general site remediation in 2000, and quarterly groundwater monitoring conducted from 2001 through 2003. Ecology issued a No Further Action determination in 2003, closing the cleanup record. 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.
The underground storage tanks removed from this site in 1999 reflect a generation of government facility infrastructure that was routinely installed decades before 1986 — the year occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies ceased to provide workable pollution coverage. The heavy oil release documented here is precisely the slow, subsurface contamination that pre-1986 CGL policies were written to address, and the Commission's documented remediation costs — UST removal, soil treatment, and two-plus years of groundwater monitoring — were incurred to address a release attributable to that pre-1986 operational period. Historical carriers who issued CGL coverage to the Commission during those prior decades may still be obligated to fund recovery of those expenditures.
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.
