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.

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 nine USTs decommissioned in 1989 had been in service long enough to indicate installation well before 1986, when occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies were the industry standard. Benzene and petroleum hydrocarbons released from those tanks into soil and groundwater represent exactly the kind of gradual, operations-era contamination those policies covered without an effective pollution exclusion. The documented remediation costs — large-scale soil excavation, tank decommissioning, and the cleanup program that followed — may be recoverable from historical carriers whose CGL policies were in force during the pre-1986 operational period.

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.