This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1949. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property's industrial history begins in 1949, when a fleet fueling company operated on the site with an aboveground fuel storage tank — a tenancy that ran until 1972, when the building was constructed and converted to auto-parts retail use into the late 1980s. The broader Kent Station redevelopment area also encompassed the Borden Chemical Facility (Borden Packaging and Industrial Products), a named industrial chemical operation that contributed to the site's contamination profile. Groundwater treatment and monitoring were conducted from 1996 through 2005 under the Voluntary Cleanup Program, which remained active through 2007, with a No Further Action determination and site delisting finalized in 2016. 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 fleet fueling operation that occupied this property from 1949 to 1972 and the co-located Borden Chemical facility both generated contamination across decades when occurrence-based CGL policies were the industry standard — and when those policies named these specific tenants as insureds. The multi-year groundwater treatment program documented here, running from at least 1996 through the VCP's 2007 closure, represents remediation expenditures tied directly to petroleum releases from aboveground fuel storage and to industrial chemical operations, both originating well before 1986. Historical carriers who issued policies to the fleet fueling operator or to Borden during that window may still hold obligations for those recovered costs.
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.
