This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1965. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
Ed's Moving & Storage has operated at this Tacoma property since approximately 1965, maintaining a fleet of commercial trucks fueled by a private 900-gallon gasoline underground storage tank that was in service from around 1978 until its removal in 1992. Cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program included the UST removal, excavation and off-site disposal of 74 tons of TPH-Dx impacted soil, additional soil and debris removal around a monitoring well, and multi-year groundwater monitoring using multiple installed and replaced wells with specialized low-flow sampling. 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.
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 contamination at this property originated from a private fleet-fueling UST that was installed and operating well before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were still standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion. The site's documented remediation costs — tank removal, tens of tons of impacted soil excavated and hauled off-site, and years of groundwater monitoring — are directly tied to that pre-1986 operational period. Historical carriers who issued CGL coverage to the moving and storage operation during that window may still be obligated to recover those incurred cleanup expenditures.
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.
Recovering Costs from an Older Cleanup
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.
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.