This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1948. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
Shell Oil Company purchased this property and constructed a service station in 1948, with original underground storage tanks — one 6,000-gallon and two 3,000-gallon — installed that same year. The station operated as McMillan's Shell Service from 1948 through 1978, then continued under the Shell brand into the mid-1980s; a second generation of USTs was installed between 1961 and the early 1970s. Releases of petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHg, TPHd, TPHo), BTEX, and naphthalene contaminated both soil and groundwater at the property. The site entered the Voluntary Cleanup Program and received a No Further Action determination from Ecology. 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 traces to underground storage tanks first installed in 1948 and operated continuously for nearly four decades before 1986. Occurrence-based CGL policies issued to operators during that pre-1986 window — covering both the McMillan's-era operations and the subsequent Shell tenancy — carried no effective pollution exclusion under Washington law. The documented releases of TPHg, BTEX, and naphthalene into soil and groundwater represent the type of long-tail environmental liability those historical policies were written to address, and carriers on the risk during those decades may still owe coverage for the remediation costs incurred.
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.