This property has a documented history as a automobile dealership going back to 1930. 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 at this site — petroleum hydrocarbons from five decades of fueling and repair work, and PCE from auto painting operations — traces to infrastructure first installed as early as 1930, placing its origins a full half-century before the 1986 pollution-exclusion era. Historical groundwater pump-and-treat operations have already generated documented remediation expenditures; pre-1986 occurrence-based CGL carriers who wrote policies across this property's long operational window — with no effective pollution exclusion in Washington — may be obligated to recover those already-incurred costs. The planned excavation, in-situ chemical oxidation, permeable-reactive barrier installation, and long-term monitoring represent additional forward-looking expenditures from those same policies.

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.