This property has a documented history as a property with a heating oil tank going back to 1963. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This private residence at 11523 Heberlein Road was built in 1963, and a 300-gallon heating oil tank installed at the same time supplied heat to the home for roughly four decades before a suspected leak was identified in 2002. The tank was removed in January 2003 under the Voluntary Cleanup Program, followed by three separate soil excavation events in 2003, 2004, and 2010 that removed approximately 871 tons of contaminated soil, and a groundwater extraction campaign in 2004 that pumped out 42,800 gallons of petroleum-affected water. Monitoring wells were decommissioned in 2010, and the site has since 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 heating oil tank at this property was installed in 1963 and operated continuously for more than two decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies with no effective pollution exclusion were still the prevailing standard. The gradual seepage from an aging residential fuel tank is precisely the type of slow, ongoing release those policies were written to address. The documented remediation expenditures here — multiple rounds of soil excavation totaling 871 tons, nearly 43,000 gallons of groundwater extraction, and years of monitoring — represent costs that historical carriers whose CGL policies covered this property during the tank's operational window may be obligated to recover.
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.
