This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1954. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property operated as Unocal Service Station No. 3707 from 1954 through 1990, spanning two generations of facilities. The first-generation station (1954–1972) included three gasoline USTs totaling 12,000 gallons; the second-generation station (1972–1990) replaced them with two 20,000-gallon gasoline USTs. Cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program involved UST removal, building demolition, excavation of pump islands and product piping, removal of approximately 3,315 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil, and pumping out 14,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater for offsite disposal, with groundwater monitoring conducted from 1995 through 1998. The site has 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.
Petroleum contamination at this property originated from gasoline storage and dispensing infrastructure installed and operated continuously from 1954 — more than three decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies still carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. The documented remediation expenditures — multiple rounds of tank removal, soil excavation totaling thousands of tons, groundwater recovery, and years of monitoring — were incurred to address releases tied directly to those pre-1986 operations. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies to Unocal during that 1954-to-1986 window may still be obligated to recover those cleanup costs.
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.
