This property has a documented history as a bulk fuel distribution terminal going back to 1928. 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 at this Tacoma terminal — from decades of petroleum bulk storage, tetraethyl lead blending, and crude oil distillation — originated with operations that began in the late 1920s and continued well into the pre-1986 era when occurrence-based CGL policies carried no effective pollution exclusion. Documented spills dating to at least 1979 represent the kind of slow, ongoing release those policies were written to address. The substantial remediation costs already incurred here, together with the continuing obligations of an active groundwater treatment system and long-term monitoring, are the type of expenditures that historical carriers who issued policies during the terminal's operational decades may be obligated both to recover and to fund going forward.

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.