Additional complexities arise if other potentially responsible parties are involved in an identified site. The costs associated with remediation of a site ultimately will be assigned and allocated among the various potentially responsible parties. The final allocation of costs may not be known, however, until the remediation effort is substantially complete, and it may or may not be based on an entity's relative direct responsibility at a site. An entity's final obligation depends, among other things, on the willingness of the entity and other potentially responsible parties to negotiate a cost allocation, the results of the entity's negotiation efforts, and the ability of other potentially responsible parties associated with the particular site to fund the remediation effort.
The impact of changes in laws, regulations, and policies shall be recognized when such changes are enacted or adopted.
Once a methodology has been approved, that methodology and the technology available shall be the basis for estimating the liability until it is probable that there will be formal acceptance of a revised methodology.
For guidance on impairment tests of assets subject to asset retirement obligations, see paragraphs
.
If the claim is the subject of litigation, a rebuttable presumption exists that realization of the claim is not probable.
However, the time value of money should not be considered in the determination of the recorded amount of a potential recovery if the liability is not discounted and the timing of the recovery is dependent on the timing of the payment of the liability. In most circumstances, the point in time at which a liability for environmental remediation is both probable and reasonably estimable will precede the point in time at which any related recovery is probable of realization.