This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1943. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.

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.

Petroleum contamination at this property — gasoline constituents including BTEX and lead indicative of leaded-fuel-era operations — originated from underground storage tanks that were in service for roughly five decades before their removal in 1992. Occurrence-based CGL policies issued to the station's operators during that long pre-1986 operational window carried no effective pollution exclusion under Washington law. The documented remediation expenditures — tank removal, large-scale soil excavation, vapor extraction, and nearly a decade of groundwater monitoring — represent costs that historical carriers who covered this site during its fueling operations may still be obligated to reimburse.

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.