This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1930. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.

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 operations at this site began roughly five decades before 1986, the year occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies stopped reliably covering pollution claims in Washington. The contamination that migrated from leaking underground storage tanks into neighborhood drinking water wells — triggering a Consent Decree and a full cleanup program — originated squarely within the coverage window of those pre-1986 policies. Historical carriers who insured the petroleum operators from the 1930s or 1940s through the mid-1980s may still be obligated to reimburse the remediation costs incurred to bring this site to closure.

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.