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Contingencies
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2023
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Contingencies

NOTE 11 — Contingencies

Certain processes in the manufacture of our current and past products may create by-products classified as hazardous waste. As a result, we have been notified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), state environmental agencies and in some cases, groups of potentially responsible parties, that we may be potentially liable for environmental contamination at several sites currently or formerly owned or operated by us. Currently, none of these costs and accruals relate to sites that provide revenue generating activities for the Company. Two of those sites, Asheville, North Carolina (the "Asheville Site") and Mountain View, California, are designated National Priorities List sites under the EPA’s Superfund program. We accrue a liability for probable remediation activities, claims, and proceedings against us with respect to environmental matters if the amount can be reasonably estimated, and provide disclosures including the nature of a loss whenever it is probable or reasonably possible that a potentially material loss may have occurred but cannot be estimated. We record contingent loss accruals on an undiscounted basis.

A roll-forward of remediation reserves included in accrued expenses and other liabilities in the Consolidated Balance Sheets is composed of the following:

 

 

 

Years Ended December 31,

 

 

 

2023

 

 

2022

 

 

2021

 

Balance at beginning of period

 

$

11,048

 

 

$

10,979

 

 

$

10,642

 

Remediation expense

 

 

3,502

 

 

 

2,750

 

 

 

2,254

 

Remediation payments

 

 

(2,497

)

 

 

(2,661

)

 

 

(1,929

)

Other activity (1)

 

 

(9

)

 

 

(20

)

 

 

12

 

Balance at end of the period

 

$

12,044

 

 

$

11,048

 

 

$

10,979

 

(1) Other activity includes currency translation adjustments not recorded through remediation expense.

 

The Company operates under and in accordance with a federal consent decree, dated March 7, 2017, with the EPA for the Asheville Site. On February 8, 2023, the Company received a letter from the EPA (the “EPA Letter”) seeking reimbursement of its past response costs and interest thereon relating to any release or threatened release of hazardous substances at the Asheville Site in the aggregate amount of $9,955 from the three potentially responsible parties associated with the Asheville Site, including the Company. The Company expects its potential exposure to be between $1,900 and $9,955. We have determined that no point within this range is more likely than another and therefore we have recorded a loss estimate of $1,900 as of December 31, 2023 in the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Unrelated to the environmental claims described above, certain other legal claims are pending against us with respect to matters arising out of the ordinary conduct of our business.

We provide product warranties when we sell our products and accrue for estimated liabilities at the time of sale. Warranty estimates are forecasts based on the best available information and historical claims experience. We accrue for specific warranty claims if we believe that the facts of a specific claim make it probable that a liability in excess of our historical experience has been incurred and provide disclosures for specific claims whenever it is reasonably possible that a material loss may be incurred which cannot be estimated.

We cannot provide assurance that the ultimate disposition of environmental, legal, and product warranty claims will not materially exceed the amount of our accrued losses and adversely impact our consolidated financial position, results of operations, or cash flows. Our accrued liabilities and disclosures will be adjusted accordingly if additional information becomes available in the future.