This property has a documented history as a bulk fuel distribution terminal going back to 1972. 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.

Petroleum contamination at this site traces directly to bulk distribution operations that began in 1972 — fourteen years before the 1986 threshold after which occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies ceased to provide meaningful pollution coverage. The scale of documented remediation here — tens of thousands of cubic yards of excavated soil, hundreds of thousands of gallons of treated groundwater, plus years of active extraction and treatment infrastructure — reflects substantial historical costs already incurred and continuing expenditures still accumulating. Carriers who issued CGL policies to Lilyblad Petroleum or its predecessors during that pre-1986 operational window may be obligated both to recover past cleanup costs and to fund remediation work 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.