This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1920. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property has operated as a gasoline service station since the 1920s. A Chevron ground plan dated November 1966 documents two 7,500-gallon steel tanks and one 3,000-gallon steel tank in a common excavation on the southern portion of the site; those original tanks were removed and replaced in April 1992. A baseline environmental investigation in 2001 confirmed TPH-gasoline, benzene, xylenes, and total lead in groundwater at concentrations exceeding MTCA Method A cleanup levels. The site completed the Voluntary Cleanup Program and 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.
Fueling operations at this station date to the 1920s, and the steel underground storage tanks documented on the 1966 Chevron ground plan were in the ground for decades before their 1992 removal — placing the origin of the petroleum and lead contamination squarely within the era of occurrence-based CGL coverage. Carriers who insured this station during that multi-decade window wrote policies with no effective pollution exclusion under Washington law, and the remediation costs incurred to bring benzene, xylenes, and lead below MTCA cleanup levels — from tank removal through the Voluntary Cleanup Program's No Further Action milestone — are expenditures those policies were designed to cover.
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.