This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations 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.

The petroleum and lead contamination at this site originated from a gasoline UST system that predates 1986 — the presence of total lead in groundwater is itself a hallmark of the leaded-gasoline era, when occurrence-based CGL policies carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. Documented remediation expenditures to date — tank removal, soil excavation, land farming, and years of groundwater monitoring — along with the continued monitoring and restrictive-covenant obligations still ahead, represent costs that historical carriers who wrote CGL coverage during the pre-1986 operational window may be obligated both to reimburse 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.