Environmental

General

The Company is subject to environmental laws and regulations worldwide that impose limitations on the discharge of pollutants into the air and water and establish standards for the treatment, storage and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes. The Company believes that it is in substantial compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations. The Company is also subject to retained environmental obligations specified in various contractual agreements arising from the divestiture of certain businesses by the Company or one of its predecessor companies.

Environmental expenditures for preventative and remediation efforts are as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2013	2012	2011
	(In $ millions)
Capital expenditures	90	40	30
Other expenditures ⁽¹⁾	49	45	41

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⁽¹⁾	Includes expenditures for US Superfund sites of $2 million, $2 million and $2 million for the years ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively.

The components of environmental remediation reserves are as follows:



	As of December 31,
	2013	2012
	(In $ millions)
Demerger obligations (Note 23)	27	31
Divestiture obligations (Note 23)	21	21
Active sites	32	28
US Superfund sites	13	15
Other environmental remediation reserves	4	4
Total	97	99

Remediation

Due to its industrial history and through retained contractual and legal obligations, the Company has the obligation to remediate specific areas on its own sites as well as on divested, demerger, orphan or US Superfund sites (as defined below). In addition, as part of the demerger agreement between the Company and Hoechst AG ("Hoechst"), a specified portion of the responsibility for environmental liabilities from a number of Hoechst divestitures was transferred to the Company (Note 23). The Company provides for such obligations when the event of loss is probable and reasonably estimable. The Company believes that environmental remediation costs will not have a material adverse effect on the financial position of the Company, but may have a material adverse effect on the results of operations or cash flows in any given period.

Remediation expense is recorded as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2013	2012	2011
	(In $ millions)
Cost of sales	9	10	2
Selling, general and administrative expenses	1	3	6

The Company did not record any insurance recoveries during 2013 or have any receivables for insurance recoveries related to these matters as of December 31, 2013. As of December 31, 2013 and 2012, there were receivables of $4 million and $6 million, respectively, from the former owner of the Company's Spondon, Derby, United Kingdom acetate flake, tow and film business, which was acquired in 2007.

German InfraServ Entities

On January 1, 1997, coinciding with a reorganization of the Hoechst businesses in Germany, real estate service companies ("InfraServ Entities") were created to own directly the land and property and to provide various technical and administrative services at each of the manufacturing locations. The Company owns manufacturing facilities at the InfraServ location in Frankfurt am Main-Hoechst, Germany and holds equity interests in the companies, which own and operate the former Hoechst sites in Frankfurt am Main-Hoechst, Gendorf and Knapsack, all of which are located in Germany.

InfraServ Entities are liable for any residual contamination and other pollution because they own the real estate on which the individual facilities operate. In addition, Hoechst, and its legal successors, as the responsible party under German public law, is liable to third parties for all environmental damage that occurred while it was still the owner of the plants and real estate (Note 23). The contribution agreements entered into in 1997 between Hoechst and the respective operating companies, as part of the divestiture of these companies, provide that the operating companies will indemnify Hoechst, and its legal successors, against environmental liabilities resulting from the transferred businesses. Additionally, the InfraServ Entities have agreed to indemnify Hoechst, and its legal successors, against any environmental liability arising out of or in connection with environmental pollution of any site.

The InfraServ partnership agreements provide that, as between the partners, each partner is responsible for any contamination caused predominantly by such partner. Any liability, which cannot be attributed to an InfraServ partner and for which no third party is responsible, is required to be borne by the InfraServ partnership. Also, under lease agreements entered into by an InfraServ partner as landlord, the tenants agreed to pay certain remediation costs on a pro rata basis.

If an InfraServ partner defaults on its respective indemnification obligations to eliminate residual contamination, the owners of the remaining participation in the InfraServ companies have agreed to fund such liabilities, subject to a number of limitations. To the extent that any liabilities are not satisfied by either the InfraServ Entities or their owners, these liabilities are to be borne by the Company in accordance with the demerger agreement. However, Hoechst, and its legal successors, will reimburse the Company for two-thirds of any such costs. Likewise, in certain circumstances the Company could be responsible for the elimination of residual contamination on several sites that were not transferred to InfraServ companies, in which case Hoechst, and its legal successors, must also reimburse the Company for two-thirds of any costs so incurred. The German InfraServ Entities are owned partially by the Company (Note 8), as noted below, and the remaining ownership is held by various other companies. The Company's ownership interest and environmental liability participation percentages for such liabilities, which cannot be attributed to an InfraServ partner are as follows:



	As of December 31, 2013
	Ownership	Liability	Reserves ⁽¹⁾
	(In percentages)		(In $ millions)
InfraServ GmbH & Co. Gendorf KG	39	10	17
InfraServ GmbH & Co. Knapsack KG	27	22	1
InfraServ GmbH & Co. Hoechst KG	32	40	79

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⁽¹⁾	Gross reserves maintained by the respective InfraServ entity.

US Superfund Sites

In the US, the Company may be subject to substantial claims brought by US federal or state regulatory agencies or private individuals pursuant to statutory authority or common law. In particular, the Company has a potential liability under the US Federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, as amended, and related state laws (collectively referred to as "Superfund") for investigation and cleanup costs at certain sites. At most of these sites, numerous companies, including the Company, or one of its predecessor companies, have been notified that the Environmental Protection Agency, state governing bodies or private individuals consider such companies to be potentially responsible parties ("PRP") under Superfund or related laws. The proceedings relating to these sites are in various stages. The cleanup process has not been completed at most sites and the status of the insurance coverage for some of these proceedings is uncertain. Consequently, the Company cannot accurately determine its ultimate liability for investigation or cleanup costs at these sites.

As events progress at each site for which it has been named a PRP, the Company accrues, as appropriate, a liability for site cleanup. Such liabilities include all costs that are probable and can be reasonably estimated. In establishing these liabilities, the Company considers its shipment of waste to a site, its percentage of total waste shipped to the site, the types of wastes involved, the conclusions of any studies, the magnitude of any remedial actions that may be necessary and the number and viability of other PRPs. Often the Company joins with other PRPs to sign joint defense agreements that settle, among PRPs, each party’s percentage allocation of costs at the site. Although the ultimate liability may differ from the estimate, the Company routinely reviews the liabilities and revises the estimate, as appropriate, based on the most current information available.

One such site is the Lower Passaic River Study Area. The Company and 70 other companies are parties to a May 2007 Administrative Order on Consent with the US Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") to perform a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study ("RI/FS") of the contaminants in the lower 17-mile stretch known as the Lower Passaic River Study Area. The RI/FS is ongoing and may take several more years to complete. The Company is among a group of settling parties to a June 2012 Administrative Order on Consent with the EPA to perform a removal action on a small section of the river. The Company was named as a third-party defendant along with more than 200 other entities in an action initially brought by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection ("NJDEP") in the Supreme Court of New Jersey against Occidental Chemical Corporation and several other companies. This suit by the NJDEP sought recovery of costs arising from alleged discharges into the Lower Passaic River and was resolved as to the Company in December 2013.

In 2007, the EPA issued a draft study that evaluated alternatives for early remedial action of a portion of the Passaic River at an estimated cost of $900 million to $2.3 billion. Several parties commented on the draft study, and the EPA has announced its intention to issue a proposed plan in 2014. Although the Company's assessment that the contamination allegedly released by the Company is likely an insignificant aspect of the final remedy, because the RI/FS is still ongoing, and the EPA has not finalized its study or the scope of requested cleanup the Company cannot reliably estimate its portion of the final remedial costs for this matter at this time. However, the Company currently believes that its portion of the costs would be less than approximately 1% to 2%. The Company is vigorously defending these and all related matters.

Environmental Proceedings

On January 7, 2013, following self-disclosures by the Company, the Company's Meredosia, Illinois site received a Notice of Violation/Finding of Violation from the EPA Region 5 alleging Clean Air Act violations. The Company is working with the EPA and with the state agency to reach a resolution of this matter. Based on currently available information and the Company's past experience, it does not believe that resolution of this matter will have a significant impact on the Company, even though the Company cannot conclude that a penalty will be less than $100,000. The Meredosia, Illinois site is included in the Industrial Specialties segment.