This commercial property, associated with Dari Marketing Services, contained a diesel underground storage tank that was removed in 1991 after a release was discovered. Cleanup activities conducted between 1991 and 1992 as an independent cleanup action included excavation of petroleum-contaminated soil, groundwater removal from the excavation, and further overexcavation, with contaminated materials disposed off-site. The site has received a No Further Action determination. That history could support an insurance cost recovery claim against carriers who issued insurance policies 40+ years ago.
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 diesel contamination at this property originated from an underground storage tank whose operations predate 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were the industry standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. The documented remediation expenditures — tank removal, soil excavation, groundwater management, and off-site disposal — were incurred to address a release tied to those pre-1986 operations. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies during the tank's 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.
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.
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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.