This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1946. 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.

Fuel dispensing operations at this site began in 1946 — four decades before occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies stopped reliably covering pollution claims in 1986. The contamination documented here, including petroleum hydrocarbons, benzene, and lead from leaded gasoline, is tied directly to tank installations and fueling operations that predated that cutoff by decades. More than twenty years of documented remediation expenditures — tank removals, structure demolition, vapor extraction, and long-term monitoring — represent costs that historical carriers may be obligated both to recover and to fund as cleanup continues.

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.