Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

2.    Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

Liabilities for landfill and environmental remediation costs are presented in the table below (in millions):

	September 30, 2019						December 31, 2018
			Environmental						Environmental
	Landfill		Remediation		Total		Landfill		Remediation		Total
Current (in accrued liabilities)	$	114	$	28	$	142	$	143	$	26	$	169
Long-term		1,706		211		1,917		1,617		211		1,828
	$	1,820	$	239	$	2,059	$	1,760	$	237	$	1,997

The changes to landfill and environmental remediation liabilities for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 are reflected in the table below (in millions):

			Environmental
	Landfill		Remediation
December 31, 2018	$	1,760	$	237
Obligations incurred and capitalized		54		—
Obligations settled		(80)		(16)
Interest accretion		72		4
Revisions in estimates and interest rate assumptions (a)		10		14
Acquisitions, divestitures and other adjustments		4		—
September 30, 2019	$	1,820	$	239

(a) The amount reported for our environmental remediation liabilities includes an increase of $8 million due to a decrease in the risk-free discount rate used to measure our liabilities from 2.75% at December 31, 2018 to 2.0% at September 30, 2019.

At several of our landfills, we provide financial assurance by depositing cash into restricted trust funds or escrow accounts for purposes of settling our final capping, closure, post-closure and environmental remediation obligations. Generally, these trust funds are established to comply with statutory requirements and operating agreements. See Note 14 for additional information related to these trusts.