Commitments And Contingencies

6 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2013

Commitments And Contingencies [Abstract]

Commitments And Contingencies

Note 6 - Commitments and Contingencies

Environmental Matters.  The Company is subject to various federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment.  The Company has established procedures for the ongoing evaluation of its operations to identify potential environmental exposures and to comply with regulatory policies and procedures.  It is the Company’s policy to accrue estimated environmental clean-up costs (investigation and remediation) when such amounts can reasonably be estimated and it is probable that the Company will be required to incur such costs. 

The Company has agreed with the NYDEC to remediate a former manufactured gas plant site located in New York.  In February 2009, the Company received approval from the NYDEC of a Remedial Design Work Plan (RDWP) for this site. In October 2010, the Company submitted a RDWP addendum to conduct additional Preliminary Design Investigation field activities necessary to design a successful remediation. As a result of this work, the Company submitted to the NYDEC a proposal to amend the NYDEC’s Record of Decision (ROD) remedy for the site.  In April 2013, the NYDEC approved the Company’s proposed amendment.  Design work for the amended ROD remedy is expected to begin in the summer of 2013.  An estimated minimum liability for remediation of this site of $13.9 million has been recorded.

At March 31, 2013, the Company has estimated its remaining clean-up costs related to former manufactured gas plant sites and third party waste disposal sites (including the former manufactured gas plant site discussed above) will be in the range of $16.5 million to $17.0 million.  The minimum estimated liability of $16.5 million, which includes the $13.9 million discussed above, has been recorded in Other Deferred Credits on the Consolidated Balance Sheet at March 31, 2013.  The Company expects to recover its environmental clean-up costs through rate recovery over a period of approximately 10 years.

The Company is currently not aware of any material additional exposure to environmental liabilities.  However, changes in environmental laws and regulations, new information or other factors could have an adverse financial impact on the Company.

Other.  The Company is involved in other litigation and regulatory matters arising in the normal course of business.  These other matters may include, for example, negligence claims and tax, regulatory or other governmental audits, inspections, investigations and other proceedings.  These matters may involve state and federal taxes, safety, compliance with regulations, rate base, cost of service and purchased gas cost issues, among other things.  While these other matters arising in the normal course of business could have a material effect on earnings and cash flows in the period in which they are resolved, an estimate of the possible loss or range of loss, if any, cannot be made at this time.