This property has a documented history as a bulk fuel distribution terminal going back to 1949. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
Union Oil Company purchased this Chelan property in 1940 and operated it as a bulk fuel distribution plant from 1949 to 1989, with six above-ground storage tanks holding up to 112,000 gallons of gasoline, diesel, and heating oil combined. A spill recorded in 1985 prompted the addition of a concrete floor to the tank farm; the ASTs were removed in 1992. Cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program included soil excavation totaling 300 cubic yards in 2001 and 2005, an Air-Sparge/Soil Vapor Extraction system that operated from 2001 to 2002 and recovered 648 pounds of hydrocarbons, additional air sparging in 2005, and semi-annual groundwater monitoring from 1991 through 2015. 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.
Bulk petroleum distribution operations at this property ran from 1949 through 1989 — four decades that spanned the entire era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion. Groundwater samples collected through the 1990s were analyzed for total lead, indicating the site dispensed leaded gasoline during the pre-1986 window when those policies were in force and contamination from petroleum releases was precisely the liability they were written to cover. The documented remediation expenditures here — AST removal, multiple rounds of soil excavation, vapor extraction, and twenty-four years of semi-annual groundwater monitoring — were incurred to address releases tied directly to Unocal's historical operations, and historical carriers who issued CGL policies during that operating window may still be obligated to recover them.
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.
