This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1968. Historical insurance policies issued during operations at this property and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.
This property has operated as a Chevron service station since 1968, when its first generation of gasoline underground storage tanks was installed; a second generation followed in 1983. Cleanup activities beginning in the mid-1990s included removal of 6,351 tons of contaminated soil and underground storage tanks in 1995, extraction and discharge of 100,000 gallons of groundwater, and ongoing groundwater monitoring and sampling from 1994 through at least 2006 with purge water treated by granular activated carbon filtration. A No Further Action determination issued in 2001 was rescinded in 2020 due to persistent contamination, and the site now requires renewed remediation. The station remains in active commercial operation with four 12,000-gallon gasoline USTs and six dispenser islands. 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.
Petroleum contamination at this site traces to underground storage tanks first installed in 1968 and expanded in 1983 — both well within the era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. Decades of documented remediation expenditures — large-scale soil removal, groundwater extraction, long-term monitoring, and carbon filtration — have already been incurred, and the 2020 rescission of No Further Action status signals that additional cleanup costs lie ahead. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies during those pre-1986 operational years may be obligated both to recover past remediation costs and to fund the next phase of work.
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.
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.
