This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1978. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property operated as the Jackpot Food Mart, a convenience store with fuel dispensing via underground storage tanks in Anacortes, Skagit County. Cleanup was conducted as an independent remedial action under the Voluntary Cleanup Program and included UST removal, four quarters of groundwater monitoring, and subsequent monitoring well abandonment. Ecology has issued a No Further Action determination and updated its Leaking Underground Storage Tank database accordingly. 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 site were estimated to have been installed around 1978 — nearly a decade before occurrence-based CGL policies gave way to claims-made forms with absolute pollution exclusions. Gasoline-range petroleum hydrocarbons migrated into soil and groundwater from those tanks over years of routine operation, and the resulting remediation costs — tank removal, groundwater monitoring, well abandonment, and Ecology review — flowed directly from that pre-1986 infrastructure. Historical carriers on the risk during the late 1970s and early 1980s may still owe coverage for those documented 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.
