This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1930. 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.

Fueling operations at this property began in the 1930s — more than fifty years before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were still the industry standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion. An orphan UST documented as predating a 1967 street widening confirms that contamination at this site traces to decades of pre-1986 fuel storage and dispensing across multiple generations of infrastructure. The cleanup costs still facing this property — remediation of the remaining contaminated soil and groundwater that triggered re-enrollment in 2015 — could plausibly be funded by historical carriers whose occurrence-based policies were in force when that contamination first originated.

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.