This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1965. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property operated as a gasoline service station under Arco and its predecessors from at least 1965, with nine underground storage tanks storing gasoline across decades of retail fuel operations. Cleanup under the Voluntary Cleanup Program included removal of five USTs in 1991 and four additional 10,000-gallon fiberglass USTs in 1999, quarterly groundwater monitoring from 1993 through 2013, and Oxygen Releasing Compound injection in 2010 to address benzene and total petroleum hydrocarbons exceeding MTCA Method A Cleanup Levels — with floating petroleum product detected in at least one monitoring well. The Department of Ecology issued a No Further Action determination in December 2013. 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 site originated from underground storage tanks installed and operated more than two decades before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were the industry standard and carried no effective pollution exclusion. The documented remediation expenditures — nine UST removals across two phases, twenty years of quarterly groundwater monitoring, and in-situ chemical treatment — were incurred to address releases tied directly to those pre-1986 fuel operations. Historical carriers who issued CGL policies during Arco's operational window beginning in 1965 may still be obligated to recover 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.