ACCRUED ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION COSTS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

ACCRUED ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION COSTS [Abstract]

NOTE 8: ACCRUED ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION COSTS

Our Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31 include accrued environmental remediation costs (measured on an undiscounted basis) as follows:



in thousands	2015	2014
Accrued Environmental Remediation Costs
Continuing operations	$ 6,876	$ 4,919
Retained from former Chemicals business	10,988	4,129
Total	$ 17,864	$ 9,048

The long-term portion of the accruals noted above is included in other noncurrent liabilities in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets and amounted to $12,569,000 at December 31, 2015 and $6,736,000 at December 31, 2014. The short-term portion of these accruals is included in other accrued liabilities in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets.

The accrued environmental remediation costs in continuing operations relate primarily to the former Florida Rock, Tarmac, and CalMat facilities acquired in 2007, 2000 and 1999, respectively. The current increase primarily relates to environmental costs incurred at the Hewitt Landfill. The balances noted above for Chemicals relate to retained environmental remediation costs from the 2003 sale of the Performance Chemicals business and the 2005 sale of the Chloralkali business. The increase in these retained liabilities primarily relates to the Lower Passaic River Superfund site. Refer to Note 12 for additional discussion of these contingent environmental matters.