This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station predating 1986. 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.

Lead contamination detected in groundwater at this site is a direct indicator that the facility dispensed leaded gasoline, which was phased out nationally before 1986 — placing the contamination-generating operations squarely within the era of occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies that carried no effective pollution exclusion. The documented remediation expenditures here — soil excavation, extraction infrastructure, and years of semi-annual groundwater monitoring — are tied to releases from those pre-1986 operations. Historical carriers whose CGL policies were in force during the facility's leaded-gasoline-era operations may be obligated both to recover past cleanup costs and to fund the monitoring and remediation work that remains ongoing.

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.