Section 25269.5 Of Chapter 6.66. Oversight Costs From California Health And Safety Code >> Division 20. >> Chapter 6.66.
25269.5
. The department shall take the following actions with
regard to the department's relationship with the parties who are
performing the investigation and cleanup of the hazardous substance
release site or taking a hazardous waste corrective action or
response action:
(a) Adopt procedures to improve communication, facilitate the
exchange of ideas, eliminate surprises, and allow better financial
planning by the department and potentially responsible parties,
including a meet and confer process which includes, but is not
limited to, all of the following:
(1) An estimate of the cost of site remediation by the department
for the next phase of the site remediation activity, including a list
of estimated personnel labor rates.
(2) An estimate of the total hours that the department expects the
department staff to incur in the next phase of the site mitigation
process, to the extent that the department can project its time and
costs in advance. That estimate shall include the projected hours of
the project manager, and the costs of public participation, legal
counsel, and technical consultations.
(3) A discussion of the schedule for the remediation action,
including a thorough review of the services that the department
expects to provide, deliverables, timeframes, expectations of both
parties, a process for status reporting by both parties, systematic
billing at least once every three months by the department, and an
agreement on how the work plan will be modified, and how the costs
will be estimated.
(b) Develop a concise statement of its cost recovery policies and
billing procedures, including dispute resolution procedures and the
availability of program guidance and policies, which shall be
distributed to all potentially responsible parties before any site
remediation commences, as part of the meet and confer process.
(c) Review all informal guidance documents for the cost recovery
program, including fee bulletins, management memos, policies, and
procedures, and review and update those documents, as appropriate.
(d) Establish a procedure, when there is a change of project
manager for a remediation action, to provide for a detailed status
briefing to identify the highlights of past work and identify the
current areas of agreement and disagreement among the parties.