The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) recently issued a draft of a requirement that would incease the transparency and consistency of local government accounting for pollution remediation.

The draft lists five conditions that would require a government to estimate costs for pollution clean-up measures in its financial reports. These include being named in a lawsuit to address pollution issues and violating a pollution-related permit or license, and three other circumstances.

The deadline for comments on the proposal is May 1. If approved, the new requirement would go into effect for financial statements reporting periods beginning after June 15, 2007.