This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
The Lighthouse Diving Center operates as a diving equipment retailer and air tank servicing facility, with compressor use integral to its service operations. A complaint filed in 1991 alleged dumping of compressor oil beneath the building; soil sampling confirmed total petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy oils in the soil. Cleanup consisted of two separate soil excavation events removing approximately 2 cubic feet of impacted material, with ongoing source control capturing discharge valve liquid in a 55-gallon drum. The site has reached No Further Action status under Ecology's Standard Cleanup program. 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.
Compressor oil discharged repeatedly beneath the building floor — an incremental, operational release produced by routine air tank servicing — is exactly the kind of gradual contamination that pre-1986 occurrence-based CGL policies were written to cover: pollution arising from a business's ordinary activities, with no effective exclusion to bar the claim. The 1991 discovery, initiated by a complaint about oil leaking through floors and discharging into a bucket, points to an accumulation that predates the mid-1980s shift in policy language by years. Historical carriers who issued CGL coverage to the Lighthouse Diving Center during that earlier operational window may bear obligations covering the documented excavation and source-control costs.
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.
