This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during operations at this property 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 traces to dispenser equipment that predated secondary-containment requirements — regulations that took hold after 1986 — linking the release to operational practices squarely within the era of occurrence-based CGL policies. Those pre-1986 policies carried no effective pollution exclusion and may remain enforceable against historical carriers whose coverage was in force when the dispenser leakage first occurred. Because excavation and groundwater monitoring lie ahead rather than behind, the bulk of remediation expenditure at this site is still prospective — the precise funding exposure that historical policy recovery is built to address.

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.