This property has a documented history as a property with a heating oil tank going back to 1963. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This commercial property housed a diesel underground storage tank estimated to have been installed around 1963, serving as a heating oil system for the GTE Snohomish Central Office. The UST was removed in 1988, with cleanup activities including pumping out contaminated water and landfarming contaminated pea gravel on-site. Additional contamination was encountered during utility work in 1997, prompting further soil excavation. The site received a No Further Action determination in 2012 after independent cleanup efforts spanning more than two decades. 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.
Diesel contamination at this property traces to a underground storage tank that was in service for roughly twenty-five years before its 1988 removal — placing its entire operational life squarely within the pre-1986 era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion. The documented remediation costs — tank removal, contaminated water pumping, soil landfarming, and additional excavation nearly a decade later — are the kind of long-tail cleanup expenditures that historical CGL carriers may still be obligated to cover.
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.