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 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.

The petroleum contamination at this site originated from single-wall steel underground storage tanks whose age and construction place them squarely in the pre-1986 era, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. More than fifteen years of documented remediation expenditures — soil excavation, free-product recovery, groundwater pumping, air sparging, and long-term monitoring — were incurred to address releases tied to those historical operations. The carriers who issued CGL policies while those tanks were in service may be obligated to reimburse past cleanup costs and to fund the remediation work that remains.

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.