This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1968. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property was developed as a gasoline service station with an automotive repair shop in 1968, with four underground storage tanks installed that year — two 10,000-gallon gasoline tanks, a 1,000-gallon heating oil tank, and a 550-gallon waste oil tank. A fifth UST, a 6,000-gallon gasoline tank, was added in 1971. All five original tanks were decommissioned in 1983 when four new 10,000-gallon USTs were installed. The site entered the Voluntary Cleanup Program and a Cleanup Action Report was completed in 2011; the property has since received a No Further Action determination. 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 — benzene, diesel-range, and gasoline-range hydrocarbons confirmed in groundwater — originated from fueling operations that began in 1968, nearly two decades before the 1986 shift away from occurrence-based Commercial General Liability coverage. The documented remediation expenditures incurred to address releases from those pre-1986 tanks and operations fall squarely within the coverage window of historical CGL policies that carried no effective pollution exclusion. Carriers who issued policies to the operators during the 1968-through-1986 period may still owe recovery of 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.