§ 11.81 - Damage determination phase - restoration and compensation determination plan.

§ 11.81 Damage determination phase - restoration and compensation determination plan.

(a) Requirement.

(1) The authorized official shall develop a Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan that will list a reasonable number of possible alternatives for

(i) the restoration or rehabilitation of the injured natural resources to a condition where they can provide the level of services available at baseline, or

(ii) the replacement and/or acquisition of equivalent natural resources capable of providing such services, and, where relevant, the compensable value; select one of the alternatives and the actions required to implement that alternative; give the rationale for selecting that alternative; and identify the methodologies that will be used to determine the costs of the selected alternative and, at the discretion of the authorized official, the compensable value of the services lost to the public associated with the selected alternative.

(2) The Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan shall be of sufficient detail to evaluate the possible alternatives for the purpose of selecting the appropriate alternative to use in determining the cost of baseline restoration, rehabilitation, replacement, and/or acquisition of equivalent resources, and, where relevant, the compensable value.

(b) The authorized official shall use the guidance in §§ 11.82, 11.83, and 11.84 of this part to develop the Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan.

(c) The authorized official shall list the methodologies he expects to use to determine the costs of all actions considered within the selected alternative and, where relevant, the compensable value of the lost services through the recovery period associated with the selected alternative. The methodologies to use in determining costs and compensable value are described in § 11.83 of this part.

(d)

(1) The Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan shall be part of the Assessment Plan developed in subpart B of this part. If existing data are not sufficient to develop the Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan at the time that the overall Assessment Plan is made available for public review and comment, the Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan may be developed later, after the completion of the Injury Determination or Quantification phases.

(2) If the Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan is prepared later than the Assessment Plan, it shall be made available separately for public review by any identified potentially responsible party, other natural resource trustees, other affected Federal or State agencies or Indian tribes, and any other interested members of the public for a period of no less than 30 calendar days. Reasonable extensions may be granted as appropriate.

(3) Comments received from any identified potentially responsible party, other natural resource trustees, other affected Federal or State agencies or Indian tribes, or any other interested members of the public, together with responses to those comments, shall be included as part of the Report of Assessment, described in § 11.90 of this part.

(4) Appropriate public review of the plan must be completed before the authorized official performs the methodologies listed in the Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan.

(e) The Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan may be expanded to incorporate requirements from procedures required under other portions of CERCLA or the CWA or from other Federal, State, or tribal laws applicable to restoration, rehabilitation, replacement, and/or acquisition of the equivalent of the injured resources or may be combined with other plans for related purposes, so long as the requirements of this section are fulfilled.

[59 FR 14283, Mar. 25, 1994, as amended at 73 FR 57266, Oct. 2, 2008]