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.

The contamination here traces directly to underground storage tanks installed in the 1970s — a decade when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies to the Daily News or related operators during that pre-1986 operational window may be obligated to recover the documented past remediation expenditures: two rounds of excavation, years of active air sparging, and more than a decade of groundwater monitoring. With cleanup still active and monitoring ongoing, those same historical policies may also be called upon to fund the remediation work that remains ahead — making access to pre-1986 insurance archives both a retrospective recovery opportunity and a forward-looking funding priority.

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.