This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1971. Historical insurance policies issued during operations at this property and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property has operated as a retail fueling station since 1971, when four 6,000-gallon underground storage tanks were installed to dispense regular, premium, and mid-grade unleaded gasoline as well as diesel fuel. Groundwater monitoring across eight wells from 1995 through 2013 documented extensive petroleum contamination, including TPH-Gasoline concentrations as high as 230,000 µg/L and benzene at 14,000 µg/L. Remediation under the Voluntary Cleanup Program included air-sparging and soil vapor extraction, oxygen-releasing compound injections, enhanced liquid recovery, and sulfate injections. Ecology issued a No Further Action determination in July 2014. 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 in 1971 — fifteen years before occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies gave way to claims-made forms with absolute pollution exclusions. The severity of the documented releases — benzene and TPH-Gasoline in groundwater at concentrations orders of magnitude above cleanup levels — and the multi-year remediation campaign required to address them represent substantial expenditures tied directly to those pre-1986 fueling operations. Historical carriers who wrote CGL policies covering this station during the 1970s and early 1980s 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.