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.

Petroleum contamination at this Long Beach site traces directly to fuel dispensing operations that ended roughly three decades before 1986 — the inflection year after which occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies began incorporating effective pollution exclusions. The presence of lead as a documented contaminant, attributed specifically to historic petroleum releases, further anchors the contamination origin to the pre-1986 operational era. The documented remediation expenditures here — soil excavation, vapor mitigation infrastructure, multiple rounds of in-situ chemical treatment, and years of monitoring — represent exactly the category of ongoing cleanup costs that historical CGL carriers whose policies were in force during those fueling operations 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.