COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES [Abstract]

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

NOTE 11 - COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

In February 2006, the Company entered into a lease agreement under which the Company leased a portion of a Channahon, Illinois facility where it conducted manufacturing and utilized certain warehouse space. The Company terminated its lease at this location effective June 30, 2011 in accordance with terms of the agreement.

In 2002, the Company entered into a ten (10) year lease which became cancelable in 2009 for approximately 20,000 square feet of office space. The office space is now serving as the Company's general offices and as a laboratory facility. The Company leases most of its vehicles and office equipment under non-cancelable operating leases, which primarily expire at various times through 2021. Rent expense charged to operations under such lease agreements for 2011, 2010 and 2009 aggregated approximately $1,127, $1,113 and $1,183, respectively. Aggregate future minimum rental payments required under non-cancelable operating leases at December 31, 2011 are as follows:

Year
2012	$	756
2013		373
2014		208
2015		161
2016		107
Thereafter		183
Total minimum lease payments	$	1,788

In 1982, the Company discovered and thereafter removed a number of buried drums containing unidentified waste material from the Company's site in Slate Hill, New York. The Company thereafter entered into a Consent Decree to evaluate the drum site with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (“NYDEC”) and performed a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study that was approved by NYDEC in February 1994. Based on NYDEC requirements, the Company cleaned the area and removed additional soil from the drum burial site, which was completed in 1996. The Company continues to be involved in discussions with NYDEC to evaluate test results and determine what, if any, additional actions will be required on the part of the Company to close out the remediation of this site. Additional actions, if any, would likely require the Company to continue monitoring the site. The cost of such monitoring has been less than $5 per year for the period 2003 – 2011.

The Company's Verona, Missouri facility, while held by a prior owner, was designated by the EPA as a Superfund site and placed on the National Priorities List in 1983, because of dioxin contamination on portions of the site. Remediation conducted by the prior owner under the oversight of the EPA and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (“MDNR”) included removal of dioxin contaminated soil and equipment, capping of areas of residual contamination in four relatively small areas of the site separate from the manufacturing facilities, and the installation of wells to monitor groundwater and surface water contamination by organic chemicals. No ground water or surface water treatment was required.  The Company believes that remediation of the site is complete.  In 1998, the EPA certified the work on the contaminated soils to be complete. In February 2000, after the conclusion of two years of monitoring groundwater and surface water, the former owner submitted a draft third party risk assessment report to the EPA and MDNR recommending no further action. The prior owner is awaiting the response of the EPA and MDNR to the draft risk assessment.

While the Company must maintain the integrity of the capped areas in the remediation areas on the site, the prior owner is responsible for completion of any further Superfund remedy.  The Company is indemnified by the sellers under its May 2001 asset purchase agreement covering its acquisition of the Verona, Missouri facility for potential liabilities associated with the Superfund site and one of the sellers, in turn, has the benefit of certain contractual indemnification by the prior owner that is implementing the above-described Superfund remedy.

From time to time, the Company is a party to various litigation, claims and assessments.  Management believes that the ultimate outcome of such matters will not have a material effect on the Company's consolidated financial position, results of operations, or liquidity.