This property has a documented history as a gasoline service station going back to 1950. Historical insurance policies issued during those prior operations and through 1986 could recover the cleanup costs already paid.
This property operated as a service station and tire sales facility from the 1950s through 1992, with four underground storage tanks installed between approximately 1978 and 1983. In February 1990, benzene was detected in the Airway Heights Tire domestic water well at concentrations of 47.5 and 49.0 parts per billion — nearly ten times the EPA safe drinking water standard of 5 ppb. Six monitoring wells were installed in 1989 southwest of the property, the USTs were removed in November 1993, and the site 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 operations at this site began in the 1950s and continued for more than three decades before 1986, the year occurrence-based Commercial General Liability policies stopped reliably covering pollution claims. The benzene contamination that reached the property's domestic water well originated from underground storage tanks installed and operated during that pre-1986 window. Remediation expenditures — monitoring well installation, UST removal, and groundwater investigation — arose directly from releases tied to those historical operations, and the CGL carriers on risk during the 1950s-through-1986 period may still bear obligations for those 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.