This property has a documented history as a bulk fuel distribution terminal going back to 1944. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property served as a Boeing fuel farm at the southeast end of Renton Municipal Airport, with multiple large underground storage tanks — including 125,000-gallon tanks constructed in 1944 to store Bunker C fuel oil and diesel fuel. Two of the tanks (URE-05 and URE-06) were demolished and closed in 1988, followed by a major source removal from 1992 to 1993 that excavated over 13,500 tons of contaminated soil and concrete, extracted and treated 2.24 million gallons of petroleum-affected groundwater, and installed a sheet pile containment system. Quarterly groundwater monitoring began in 1993, and the site has since 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.
Petroleum contamination at this site originated from fuel storage infrastructure installed in 1944 — more than four decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies still carried no effective pollution exclusion. The scale of documented remediation costs here is substantial: mass soil excavation, millions of gallons of groundwater treatment, engineered containment, and years of monitoring, all traceable to releases from those wartime-era tanks. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies covering Boeing's fuel farm operations during that pre-1986 window may still be obligated to recover those cleanup expenditures.
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.