This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1979. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property served as Puget Sound Energy's Totem Lake Operating Base beginning in 1979, providing fuel supply and fleet vehicle maintenance through a facility equipped with two 6,000-gallon gasoline and diesel underground storage tanks, a 300-gallon used oil UST, and a vehicle maintenance garage. Cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program ran from 1995 through 2014 and included removal of all three USTs, excavation and off-site disposal of approximately 210 cubic yards and 12.61 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil, recovery of over 6,500 gallons of contaminated groundwater, and several years of groundwater monitoring. Ecology issued a No Further Action determination at the conclusion of monitoring. 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 underground storage tanks installed and operated as part of PSE's fleet fueling operations years before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. Nearly two decades of documented remediation expenditures — UST removals, soil excavation, thermal desorption treatment, groundwater recovery, and long-term monitoring — were incurred to address releases tied directly to those pre-1986 operations. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies during the facility's early operational window may still be obligated to recover those cleanup costs.
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.