This property has a documented history as a property with a heating oil tank predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property, designated ST010 at Fairchild Air Force Base, formerly housed three underground storage tanks supplying fuel to boilers at the Deep Creek Steam Plant (Building 1350): two 12,000-gallon tanks holding No. 6 fuel oil and one 500-gallon tank holding No. 2 fuel oil for pre-heating. Operations and tank usage are documented as active prior to 1982, and all three tanks were removed in 1992. Cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program included extensive soil excavation totaling thousands of cubic yards, groundwater pump-and-treat systems, enhanced in-situ bioremediation with chemical injections, and a soil vapor extraction system that removed 127 pounds of trichloroethylene (TCE). The site has reached No Further Action status. 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 underground storage tanks at this military steam plant were in active operation before 1982 — more than four years before occurrence-based CGL policies began incorporating effective pollution exclusions in Washington. Contamination here encompasses both petroleum hydrocarbons from industrial-grade fuel oil and TCE, a profile consistent with slow, ongoing subsurface releases of the kind those pre-1986 policies were written to cover. The documented remediation expenditures — large-scale soil excavation, long-running groundwater treatment, chemical bioremediation, and vapor extraction — constitute a cost trail tied directly to those pre-1986 operations, and historical carriers who issued CGL policies during that window may still be obligated to recover those costs.
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.
