This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1965. 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 #5471, with underground storage tanks for gasoline and waste oil, fuel dispensers, and hydraulic lifts in place from approximately 1965. Subsurface investigations beginning in 1988 identified free product and petroleum contamination from historical tank leaks, prompting cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program that included removal of three USTs and a pre-1987 CIP tank, excavation of 950 cubic yards of contaminated soil, operation of a Soil Vapor Extraction system, and manual product recovery. A restrictive covenant was recorded in 1998, and 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.
Petroleum contamination at this site originated from underground storage tanks installed around 1965 — more than two decades before occurrence-based CGL policies gave way to claims-made forms with absolute pollution exclusions. The documented remediation expenditures — UST removals, large-scale soil excavation, vapor extraction, product recovery, well installation and abandonment, and years of monitoring — represent cleanup costs tied directly to releases from those pre-1986 operations. Historical carriers who wrote CGL policies covering Unocal's operations during that window may still owe indemnity for those 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.
