This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1956. 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 releases here are directly tied to UST and fuel-line operations that began as early as 1956 and produced documented contamination events more than a decade before 1986, the year occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies began to carry effective pollution exclusions. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies to the Port or its marina tenants during that pre-1986 window may be obligated both to recover costs already incurred — product recovery, UST removals, and excavation of nearly 10,000 cubic yards of impacted soil — and to fund the $330,000 in prospective groundwater monitoring and institutional controls the site still requires.

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.