This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1930. 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 gasoline storage tanks at this site were installed and operated decades before 1986 — some as early as the 1930s — when occurrence-based CGL policies were the industry standard and no effective pollution exclusion had been adopted in Washington. The documented remediation scope here is site-specific and substantial: four UST removals, excavation of 137 tons of petroleum-impacted soil, and sixteen years of quarterly groundwater monitoring with recurring purge water extraction. Carriers who issued CGL policies to Unocal operators during the 1930–1960 window wrote occurrence-based coverage that attaches to this contamination, and those documented cleanup expenditures fall squarely within the scope of that coverage.

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.