Alaska Administrative Code › Title 18 - Environmental Conservation › Chapter 75 - Oil and Other Hazardous Substances Pollution Control › Article 10 - General Provisions › 18 AAC 75.910 - Cost recovery

Current through May 31, 2024
(a) In order to
				implement the provisions of
				AS
				46.03.760(d),
				46.03.822,
				AS
				46.04.010, and
				AS
				46.08.070, the department will complete and
				maintain documentation to support its response actions and to form the basis
				for cost recovery.
(b) Each person
				who is liable under
				AS
				46.03.760,
				46.03.822,
				AS
				46.04.020, or
				AS
				46.09.020 is liable for response costs that
				the department or this state incurs. Response costs are costs reasonably
				attributable to the site or incident and may include costs of direct
				activities, support costs of direct activities, and interest charges for
				delayed payments. Response costs include the costs of direct investigation,
				containment and cleanup, removal, and remedial actions associated with an
				incident or site undertaken by the department or its contractors, as well as
				the costs of oversight by the department of those activities involving an
				incident or site undertaken by a person other than the department. Response
				costs include legal costs incurred by the department concerning a site or
				incident, and include potential responsible party searches, obtaining site
				access, causal investigations, cleanup orders and agreements, cost recovery
				actions, and enforcement actions.
(c) The department will charge an hourly rate
				based on direct staff costs plus support costs. The department will on a fiscal
				year basis use the following formula for computing hourly personnel rates by
				job class:
(1) Hourly Rate= DSC+ DSC(AICR),
				where DSC means direct staff costs described in (2) of this subsection and AICR
				means the agency indirect cost rate described in (3) of this
				subsection;
(2) direct staff costs
				(DSC) are the average cost of hours worked per job class directly on an
				incident or site, including salaries, retirement plan benefits, health care
				benefits, and leave and holiday benefits required by law to be paid to, or on
				behalf of employees; direct staff costs do not include costs associated with
				responding to a public records request, preparing or reviewing invoices or
				answering questions pertaining to invoices, responding to governor, media, or
				legislative requests for information, responding to public inquiries concerning
				the site or incident with the exception of inquiries during a large response,
				internal or external training presentations or case studies, prospective
				purchaser agreements, policy or regulatory interpretation or discussion, or
				activities completed for training purposes;
(3) agency indirect costs are the costs of
				facilities, communications, personnel, fiscal, and other statewide and
				agency-wide services that are not directly attributable to a project; the
				agency indirect cost rate (AICR) used is the agency indirect rate expressed as
				a percentage, approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency
				acting as the department's federal cognizant agency, or by a successor federal
				cognizant agency, for each fiscal year.