Title 15

SECTION 990.62

990.62 Presenting a demand.

§ 990.62 Presenting a demand.

(a) General. After closing the administrative record for restoration planning, trustees must present a written demand to the responsible parties. Delivery of the demand should be made in a manner that establishes the date of receipt by the responsible parties.

(b) When a Final Restoration Plan has been developed. Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section and in § 990.14(c) of this part, the demand must invite the responsible parties to either:

(1) Implement the Final Restoration Plan subject to trustee oversight and reimburse the trustees for their assessment and oversight costs; or

(2) Advance to the trustees a specified sum representing all trustee direct and indirect costs of assessment and restoration, discounted as provided in § 990.63(a) of this part.

(c) Regional Restoration Plan or existing restoration project. When the trustees use a Regional Restoration Plan or an existing restoration project under § 990.56 of this part, the demand will invite the responsible parties to implement a component of a Regional Restoration Plan or existing restoration project, or advance the trustees' estimate of damages based on the scale of the restoration determined to be appropriate for the incident of concern, which may be the entire project or a portion thereof.

(d) Response to demand. The responsible parties must respond within ninety (90) calendar days in writing by paying or providing binding assurance they will reimburse trustees' assessment costs and implement the plan or pay assessment costs and the trustees' estimate of the costs of implementation.

(e) Additional contents of demand. The demand must also include:

(1) Identification of the incident from which the claim arises;

(2) Identification of the trustee(s) asserting the claim and a statement of the statutory basis for trusteeship;

(3) A brief description of the injuries for which the claim is being brought;

(4) An index to the administrative record;

(5) The Final Restoration Plan or Notice of Intent to Use a Regional Restoration Plan or Existing Restoration Project; and

(6) A request for reimbursement of:

(i) Reasonable assessment costs, as defined in § 990.30 of this part and discounted as provided in § 990.63(b) of this part;

(ii) The cost, if any, of conducting emergency restoration under § 990.26 of this part, discounted as provided in § 990.63(b) of this part; and

(iii) Interest on the amounts recoverable, as provided in section 1005 of OPA (33 U.S.C. 2705), which allows for prejudgment and post-judgment interest to be paid at a commercial paper rate, starting from thirty (30) calendar days from the date a demand is presented until the date the claim is paid.

(f) Cost accounting procedures. Trustees must use methods consistent with generally accepted accounting principles and the requirements of § 990.27 of this part in determining past assessment and restoration costs incurred by trustees. When cost accounting for these costs, trustees must compound these costs using the guidance in § 990.63(b) of this part.

(g) Cost estimating procedures. Trustees must use methods consistent with generally accepted cost estimating principles and meet the standards of § 990.27 of this part in estimating future costs that will be incurred to implement a restoration plan. Trustees also must apply discounting methodologies in estimating costs using the guidance in § 990.63(a) of this part.

[61 FR 500, Jan. 5, 1996, as amended at 67 FR 61493, Oct. 1, 2002]

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