This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1937. Historical insurance policies issued during operations at this property and through 1986 could fund a cleanup — and recover costs already spent.

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 traces to fuel-handling operations that began in 1937 — nearly five decades before 1986, when occurrence-based CGL policies still carried no effective pollution exclusion. The releases documented in aerial photographs from the 1960s and 1970s, the 1981 product-line leak, and the LNAPL plume confirmed in 1989 all fall within the coverage window those policies were written to address. The site's documented remediation expenditures — investigation, decades of quarterly DPVE operations, trench installation, monitoring, and institutional controls — represent costs that historical carriers who issued CGL policies to ARCO, the Philipp operation, or their successors may be obligated both to recover and to fund going forward.

Restorical's role is to locate viable historical policies, determine whether a successful coverage claim is possible, and assist our clients and their legal counsel to obtain insurance coverage. Restorical then manages the claim, including accounting, to ensure the cleanup is funded in a timely manner.