This property has a documented history as a bulk fuel distribution terminal going back to 1973. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.

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 releases at this facility were documented as early as 1973, more than a decade before occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies ceased reliably covering pollution claims in 1986. The contamination here — diesel and gasoline from both chronic operational releases and the catastrophic 1988 rupture — traces back to infrastructure and operations that were in place during the pre-1986 policy window. The scale of documented remediation costs, from recovering tens of thousands of gallons of fuel to installing extraction systems and sustaining decades of groundwater monitoring, represents expenditures that historical carriers may be obligated both to recover and to fund going forward.

Restorical's role is to locate viable historical policies, determine whether a successful coverage claim is possible, and assist our clients and their legal counsel to obtain insurance coverage. Restorical then manages the claim, including accounting, to ensure the cleanup is funded in a timely manner.