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 recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property operated as Chevron Service Station #9-4265, with underground storage tanks that released gasoline-range hydrocarbons into the soil and groundwater. An underground storage tank was closed and removed in 1993, followed by more than a decade of groundwater monitoring and sampling under the Voluntary Cleanup Program, with reports submitted through 2003 and 2004. Ecology has since determined that the release no longer poses a threat to human health or the environment, and the site has received a No Further Action determination. 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 at this Chevron station were installed and operating well before 1986, the year occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies gave way to claims-made forms with absolute pollution exclusions. The gasoline-range hydrocarbon contamination found in soil and groundwater here is the product of those pre-1986 operations — a slow, progressive release of the kind the older policies were written to cover. Eleven years of documented remediation and monitoring costs, from UST removal through long-term groundwater sampling, represent expenditures that historical carriers who issued CGL policies during the station's early operating years may still be obligated to fund.
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.