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Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2016
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Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities | 4. Landfill and Environmental Remediation Liabilities Liabilities for landfill and environmental remediation costs are presented in the table below (in millions):
|  | December 31, 2016 |  |  | December 31, 2015 |
|  | Landfill |  |  | Environmental Remediation |  |  | Total |  |  | Landfill |  |  | Environmental Remediation |  |  | Total |
Current (in accrued liabilities) |  | $ | 119 |  |  | $ | 28 |  |  | $ | 147 |  |  | $ | 112 |  |  | $ | 31 |  |  | $ | 143 |
Long-term |  |  | 1,457 |  |  |  | 218 |  |  |  | 1,675 |  |  |  | 1,406 |  |  |  | 178 |  |  |  | 1,584 |
|  | $ | 1,576 |  |  | $ | 246 |  |  | $ | 1,822 |  |  | $ | 1,518 |  |  | $ | 209 |  |  | $ | 1,727 |
The changes to landfill and environmental remediation liabilities for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2016 are reflected in the table below (in millions):
|  | Landfill |  |  | Environmental Remediation |
December 31, 2014 |  | $ | 1,443 |  |  | $ | 235 |
Obligations incurred and capitalized |  |  | 61 |  |  |  | — |
Obligations settled |  |  | (71 | ) |  |  | (30 | )
Interest accretion |  |  | 89 |  |  |  | 3 |
Revisions in estimates and interest rate assumptions(a)(b) |  |  | (11 | ) |  |  | 5 |
Acquisitions, divestitures and other adjustments(d) |  |  | 7 |  |  |  | (4 | )
December 31, 2015 |  | $ | 1,518 |  |  | $ | 209 |
Obligations incurred and capitalized |  |  | 59 |  |  |  | — |
Obligations settled |  |  | (91 | ) |  |  | (24 | )
Interest accretion |  |  | 91 |  |  |  | 3 |
Revisions in estimates and interest rate assumptions(a)(b)(c) |  |  | (1 | ) |  |  | 58 |
December 31, 2016 |  | $ | 1,576 |  |  | $ | 246 |
(a) | The amount reported for our landfill liabilities includes a decrease of approximately $18 million for 2015 and $11 million for 2016, related to our year-end annual review of landfill final capping, closure and post-closure obligations.
(b) | The amount reported in 2015 for our environmental remediation liabilities includes the impact of an increase in the risk-free discount rate used to measure our liabilities from 2.0% at December 31, 2014 to 2.25% at December 31, 2015, resulting in a decrease of $3 million to our environmental remediation liabilities and a corresponding decrease to “Operating” expenses.
The amount reported in 2016 for environmental remediation liabilities includes the impact of an increase in the risk-free discount rate used to measure our liabilities from 2.25% at December 31, 2015 to 2.5% at December 31, 2016, resulting in a decrease of $2 million to our environmental remediation liabilities and a corresponding decrease to “Operating” expenses.
(c) | The amount reported in 2016 for our landfill liabilities includes an increase of $13 million due to acceleration of the expected timing of closure and post-closure activities for a landfill. See Note 13 for further discussion of the impairment charge related to this landfill.
The amount reported in 2016 for our environmental remediation liabilities includes the impact of an increase of $44 million in our cost estimates associated with a subsidiary’s closed site in Harris County, Texas. See Notes 11 and 13 for further discussion of this environmental remediation adjustment.
(d) | The amount reported for our 2015 landfill liabilities include an increase of approximately $18 million as a result of our acquisition of Deffenbaugh Disposal, Inc. (“Deffenbaugh”).
Our recorded liabilities as of December 31, 2016 include the impacts of inflating certain of these costs based on our expectations of the timing of cash settlement and of discounting certain of these costs to present value. Anticipated payments of currently identified environmental remediation liabilities, as measured in current dollars, are $28 million in 2017, $21 million in 2018, $29 million in 2019, $63 million in 2020, $17 million in 2021 and $88 million thereafter. At several of our landfills, we provide financial assurance by depositing cash into restricted trust funds or escrow accounts for purposes of settling final capping, closure, post-closure and environmental remediation obligations. Generally, these trust funds are established to comply with statutory requirements and operating agreements. See Notes 18 and 20 for additional information related to these trusts.

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