This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1965. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property operated as a retail petroleum fuel sales outlet and convenience store with as many as ten underground storage tanks on site. In January 1990 an approximate 3,800-gallon gasoline loss was identified from an 8,000-gallon unleaded UST, triggering emergency product recovery and tank and soil excavation later that year. A Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study was ordered in 1991, followed by a 1993 Consent Decree that required phased cleanup including groundwater monitoring and design and operation of a vapor extraction trench system. 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 underground storage tanks at this facility were installed around 1965 or earlier — more than two decades before occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies gave way to claims-made forms with absolute pollution exclusions. The documented remediation costs here — emergency product recovery, tank removal, soil excavation, vapor extraction, long-term groundwater monitoring, and $48,000 in past Ecology costs alone — trace directly to petroleum releases from those pre-1986 tanks. Historical CGL carriers who covered the facility during the decades those tanks were in the ground may still be obligated to reimburse those 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.
