This property has a documented history as a bulk fuel distribution terminal going back to 1900. 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.

Petroleum contamination at this site originated from bulk fuel storage and distribution operations that ran for roughly six decades — all of them before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion in Washington. The scale of documented remediation costs — large-volume soil excavation, groundwater treatment, engineered capping, institutional controls, and years of compliance monitoring — reflects the kind of long-tail environmental liability these historical policies were written to cover. Because cleanup is ongoing, historical carriers who insured the Cornwall Fuel Company's operations may be obligated both to reimburse past remediation expenditures and to fund the costs still ahead.

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.