On September 9, I participated in a webinar on implementing Government Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 49 (GASB 49) – Accounting and Financial Reporting for Pollution Remediation Obligations. This event was moderated by Gayle Koch of the Brattle Group, and was hosted by the American Bar Association (www.abanet.org). The lead speaker was GASB’s Wesley Galloway, who presented a short summary of the scope of GASB 49, the expected impact of the new regulations and a description of the nature of disclosure requirements for government agencies.  I spoke next about the practical methods used to estimate cleanup liabilities and what I see as the best practices to be used for solid, auditable financial reporting. Dave Kleiber, environmental finance manager at the Port of Seattle, spoke next on his practical experiences implementing the new rules, as did two representatives from the Idaho State Controller’s office, Brandon Purcell and Carol Bearce. These presentations are available from the speakers. If you’re fine-tuning a new compliance program for GASB 49, Wesley and Dave presented useful case studies.

I thought the presentations were interesting because this topic is timely and there is still some significant uncertainty about where and how to apply GASB 49. The speakers brought useful points of view in ABA’s low-cost webinar format. This content will likely be available from the ABA archive, but the speakers would likely share their presentations individually as well.

One question concerned which standards or common practices to use in generating cost estimates under GASB 49. I pointed out that the American Society for Testing and Materials Standard Guide for Estimating Monetary Costs and Liabilities for Environmental Matters (ASTM E2137-06) remains the best resource. There is no substitute for good professional judgment and, for higher cost projects, a peer review by experts.