This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property, operated as the Galvin Flying Center, was an aviation maintenance facility that stored waste oil in an underground storage tank. The UST was closed in place in 1999 — concrete walls prevented full removal — with the tank top exposed and petroleum-impacted soil overexcavated during closure; confirmation sampling found TPH concentrations above MTCA cleanup standards (500 ppm at the water table) at one end of the tank. Following UST closure, confirmation soil sampling and groundwater remediation were conducted, culminating in a No Further Action determination from Ecology in 2012. 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 waste oil UST at this aviation maintenance facility was in service well before 1986, the year occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies began incorporating effective pollution exclusions. Petroleum contamination from UST storage operations of that era is precisely the class of slow, ongoing release that pre-1986 CGL policies were written to cover. The documented remediation costs here — UST closure, impacted soil excavation, groundwater remediation, and multi-year confirmation sampling — represent expenditures potentially recoverable from historical carriers whose policies were in force when the tank and its releases were active.
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.
