This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during operations at this property 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.

The petroleum infrastructure at this station predated the 1993 upgrades by decades, placing the original tank installations and fueling operations squarely within the pre-1986 window when occurrence-based CGL policies carried no effective pollution exclusion. The contamination discovered during those upgrades — diesel-range and other petroleum hydrocarbons in groundwater — originated from releases tied to that earlier infrastructure. The remediation costs incurred over three decades of investigation, extraction, and monitoring represent expenditures that historical carriers who covered the station during its pre-1986 operations may be obligated to recover.

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.