This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station predating 1986. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property operated as a heavy truck service station with underground and aboveground storage tanks before ceasing operations prior to 1989, when a GeoEngineers investigation identified a UST, three aboveground storage tanks, and approximately thirty 55-gallon drums of petroleum products on site. A Phase II Environmental Site Assessment confirmed petroleum hydrocarbon contamination in soil and groundwater, with diesel concentrations in groundwater reaching 132,000 parts per billion — more than 260 times the MTCA Method A cleanup level of 500 ppb. Remediation under the Voluntary Cleanup Program included excavation of approximately 1,000 tons of contaminated soil and four consecutive quarters of groundwater monitoring, culminating in a No Further Action determination in April 2011. The property was redeveloped as a mini-storage facility in 1996. 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.
The petroleum contamination at this truck terminal originated from underground storage tanks operated before 1986, during the era when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies carried no effective pollution exclusion. Diesel-range hydrocarbons migrated into soil and groundwater at concentrations exceeding cleanup standards by orders of magnitude, driving remediation expenditures that included large-scale soil excavation and years of groundwater monitoring. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies while the truck terminal's USTs were in active service may still be obligated to fund recovery of those documented 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.