This property has a documented history as a industrial and manufacturing facility predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property served as the operations base for Peninsula Sanitation Service Inc., a large-scale commercial sanitation company that fueled and maintained its own industrial fleet on-site using two underground storage tanks — a 675-gallon two-compartment tank holding diesel and gasoline and a 1,000-gallon diesel tank — as well as a pump island for vehicle fueling. Routine vehicle wash water was discharged to the ground as part of normal operations, and Ecology was notified of releases as early as 1992. In 1996, an independent interim cleanup removed both USTs, stockpiled approximately 43 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil, and excavated an additional 35 cubic yards of impacted material; groundwater contamination was documented, though no dedicated groundwater treatment was conducted. The site has since received a No Further Action determination. That history could support an insurance cost recovery claim against carriers who issued insurance policies 40+ years ago.
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 contamination here — concentrated beneath the pump island and spread through soil and groundwater from routine wash water discharges — originated from fleet-fueling and vehicle maintenance operations that predated 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were the industry standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion. The UST installations and documented pre-1992 discharge history place the contamination-generating activities squarely within the window when those policies were in force. The interim cleanup costs — tank removals, soil excavation, contamination assessment — represent documented remediation expenditures that historical carriers who issued CGL policies to the sanitation operator during those years may still be obligated to recover.
Restorical's role is to locate viable historical policies, determine whether a successful cost recovery claim is possible, and assist our clients and their legal counsel to obtain insurance coverage for costs already incurred. Restorical's forensic accounting team works to re-establish and document past cleanup expenditures, ensuring the strongest possible basis for recovery.
Recovering Costs from an Older Cleanup
If this site reached No Further Action years ago, the original cleanup expenditures may be difficult to reconstruct. Restorical's forensic accounting team specializes in re-establishing and documenting past cleanup costs — even decades later — to build the strongest possible basis for an insurance recovery claim.
What We Look For
- Historical insurance policies (pre-1986)
- Policy numbers, carrier names, and coverage periods
- Connection between contamination timing and policy period
- Evidence linking cleanup obligation to insured activity
What We Deliver
- Historical Coverage Chart
- Trigger Analysis & Property/Policy Nexus
- Coverage strategy with recommendations
- Insurance funding for your remediation
- Claims Management & Forensic Accounting
The Restorical Proven Process
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Contact UsThis analysis is preliminary and based on publicly available records. Restorical Research is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
