[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 43, Volume 1]
[Revised as of October 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 43CFR11.13]

[Page 241-242]
 
                    TITLE 43--PUBLIC LANDS: INTERIOR
 
PART 11--NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS--Table of Contents
 
                         Subpart A--Introduction
 
Sec. 11.13  Overview.

    (a) Purpose. The process established by this part uses a planned and 
phased approach to the assessment of natural resource damages. This 
approach is designed to ensure that all procedures used in an 
assessment, performed pursuant to this part, are appropriate, necessary, 
and sufficient to assess damages for injuries to natural resources.
    (b) Preassessment phase. Subpart B of this part, the preassessment 
phase, provides for notification, coordination, and emergency 
activities, if necessary, and includes the preassessment screen. The 
preassessment screen is meant to be a rapid review of readily available 
information that allows the authorized official to make an early 
decision on whether a natural resource damage assessment can and should 
be performed.
    (c) Assessment Plan phase. If the authorized official decides to 
perform an assessment, an Assessment Plan, as described in subpart C of 
this part, is prepared. The Assessment Plan ensures that the assessment 
is performed in a planned and systematic manner and that the 
methodologies chosen demonstrate reasonable cost.
    (d) Type A assessments. The simplified assessments provided for in 
section 301(c)(2)(A) of CERCLA are performed using the standard 
procedures specified in subpart D of this part.
    (e) Type B assessments. Subpart E of this part covers the 
assessments provided for in section 301(c)(2)(B) of CERCLA. The process 
for implementing type B assessments has been divided into the following 
three phases.
    (1) Injury Determination phase. The purpose of this phase is to 
establish that one or more natural resources have been injured as a 
result of the discharge of oil or release of a hazardous substance. The 
sections of subpart E comprising the Injury Determination phase include 
definitions of injury, guidance on determining pathways, and testing and 
sampling methods. These methods are to be used to determine both the 
pathways through which resources have been exposed to oil or a hazardous 
substance and the nature of the injury.
    (2) Quantification phase. The purpose of this phase is to establish 
the extent of the injury to the resource in terms of the loss of 
services that the injured resource would have provided had the discharge 
or release not occurred. The sections of subpart E comprising the 
Quantification phase include methods for establishing baseline 
conditions, estimating recovery periods, and measuring the degree of 
service reduction stemming from an injury to a natural resource.
    (3) Damage Determination phase. The purpose of this phase is to 
establish the appropriate compensation expressed as

[[Page 242]]

a dollar amount for the injuries established in the Injury Determination 
phase and measured in the Quantification phase. The sections of subpart 
E of this part comprising the Damage Determination phase include 
guidance on acceptable cost estimating and valuation methodologies for 
determining compensation based on the costs of restoration, 
rehabilitation, replacement, and/or acquisition of equivalent resources, 
plus, at the discretion of the authorized official, compensable value, 
as defined in Sec. 11.83(c) of this part.
    (f) Post-assessment phase. Subpart F of this part includes 
requirements to be met after the assessment is complete. The Report of 
Assessment contains the results of the assessment, and documents that 
the assessment has been carried out according to this rule. Other post-
assessment requirements delineate the manner in which the demand for a 
sum certain shall be presented to a responsible party and the steps to 
be taken when sums are awarded as damages.

[51 FR 27725, Aug. 1, 1986, as amended at 59 FR 14281, Mar. 25, 1994]