This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1921. 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 contamination here — petroleum hydrocarbons, benzene, and lead — traces directly to gasoline storage and dispensing operations conducted from 1921 through the mid-1960s, entirely within the era of occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies that carried no effective pollution exclusion. Lead detected inside the removed USTs is physical evidence of leaded gasoline dispensed during that pre-1986 window, corroborating the contamination timeline. Remediation expenditures already incurred — UST removal, soil excavation, site restoration — and costs still ahead to address groundwater exceedances are the type of losses that historical carriers active during those decades of operation 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.