Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2022

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, 2022						December 31, 2021
			Environmental						Environmental
	Landfill		Remediation		Total		Landfill		Remediation		Total
Current (in accrued liabilities)	$	124	$	29	$	153	$	137	$	29	$	166
Long-term		2,263		173		2,436		2,189		184		2,373
	$	2,387	$	202	$	2,589	$	2,326	$	213	$	2,539

The changes to landfill and environmental remediation liabilities for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 are reflected in the table below (in millions):

			Environmental
	Landfill		Remediation
December 31, 2021	$	2,326	$	213
Obligations incurred and capitalized		86		—
Obligations settled		(83)		(18)
Interest accretion		81		3
Revisions in estimates and interest rate assumptions (a) (b)		(15)		4
Acquisitions, divestitures and other adjustments		(8)		—
September 30, 2022	$	2,387	$	202

(a) The amount reported for our landfill liabilities includes decreases related to revisions in estimated costs and timing of capping, closure and post-closure liabilities.

(b) The amount reported for our environmental remediation liabilities includes a $17 million charge in our Corporate and Other segment to adjust an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary’s estimated potential share of the liability for a proposed environmental remediation plan at a closed site, as discussed in Note 6. Partially offsetting this charge was a decrease of $16 million due to an increase from 1.50% at December 31, 2021 to 3.75% at September 30, 2022 in the risk-free discount rate used to measure these liabilities.

At several of our landfills, we provide financial assurance by depositing cash into restricted trust fund accounts for purposes of settling final capping, closure, post-closure and environmental remediation obligations. Generally, these trust fund accounts are established to comply with statutory requirements and operating agreements. See Note 13 for additional information related to these trust fund accounts.