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 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.

The presence of ethylene dibromide in groundwater at this site is a chemical fingerprint of leaded-gasoline operations, a practice phased out for highway use by 1986 — placing the contamination-generating activity squarely within the era of occurrence-based CGL policies that carried no effective pollution exclusion. The documented remediation trail at Streibel's Texaco — SVE systems, LNAPL recovery, years of annual monitoring, and injections still to come — represents both incurred and future expenditures tied directly to those historical fueling operations. Historical carriers whose policies were in force during the leaded-gasoline era may be obligated to recover past cleanup costs and to fund the work that remains.

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.