This property has a documented history as a bulk fuel distribution terminal going back to 1925. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could fund a cleanup.

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 bulk storage operations at this property predate 1986 by more than sixty years, spanning a railway-era industrial tenancy through the Texaco and Shell Oil occupancies of the mid-twentieth century. The contamination here — petroleum hydrocarbons and lead from chronic, repeated oil spills rather than a single discrete release — is exactly the slow-release pollution pattern that occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies of the pre-1986 era were written to address, before effective pollution exclusions became standard. With investigation complete and remediation still ahead, the property owner faces the full cost of a cleanup that historical carriers who issued CGL policies during those decades of bulk fuel operations may be obligated to fund.

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.