This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility going back to 1930. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property was constructed in 1910 and became a carbon dioxide manufacturing facility when Liquid Carbonic began installing equipment in 1930, supported by underground storage tanks holding diesel, monoethanolamine, and Bunker C heating fuel totaling over 42,000 gallons of capacity. Cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program included removal of four USTs in 1993, excavation of approximately 300 cubic yards of petroleum-contaminated soil in 1996, and quarterly groundwater monitoring from 1995 through 1999. The site received a No Further Action determination, with ongoing institutional controls — a Restrictive Covenant and five-year periodic reviews — requiring the existing building and asphalt cap to remain maintained. 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.
Petroleum contamination at this site originated from heavy industrial operations and underground storage tanks that date to at least 1930 — more than five decades before the 1986 shift away from occurrence-based Commercial General Liability coverage. The documented remediation costs — tank removal, large-scale soil excavation, years of groundwater monitoring, and perpetual cap maintenance under a Restrictive Covenant — are the type of long-tail cleanup expenditures that pre-1986 CGL policies were structured to cover. Historical carriers who wrote occurrence-based policies during those decades of industrial operation may still owe indemnity for these 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.
