|
REIMBURSEMENT PROCESS FOR REGULATORY OVERSIGHT
We
have identified your facility as requiring
regulatory cleanup oversight. Pursuant
to Porter-Cologne, Section 13304, reasonable
costs for such oversight can be recovered
by the Regional Water Quality Control Board
(Regional Water Board) from the responsible
party. The purpose of the enclosure
is to explain the oversight billing process
structure.
INTRODUCTION
Porter-Cologne,
Division 7, Section 13304, authorizes the
State Water Resources Control Board (State
Water Board) to set up Cost Recovery Programs.
A budget document was prepared and approved
by the Legislature to establish authority
for a Cost Recovery Program for Spills,
Leaks, Investigations, and Cleanups (SLIC).
The program is set up so that reasonable
expenses incurred by the State Water Board
and Regional Water Boards in overseeing
cleanup of illegal discharges, contaminated
properties, and other unregulated releases
adversely impacting the State's waters can
be reimbursed by the responsible party.
Reasonable expenses will be billed to responsible
parties and collected by the Fee Coordinator
at the State Water Board in the Division
of Clean Water Program's (CWP) Land Disposal
Section. The Fee Coordinator keeps
an active billing list to ensure that charges
for such expenses are appropriately assessed
and collected in a timely manner.
THE
BILLING SYSTEM
Each
account has a unique charge number assigned
to it. Whenever any oversight work
is done, the hours are billed to the charge
number. For these charges, the hours
and the associated expenditures are billed
on the quarterly billing as Labor Hours
and Current Billing Period Charges.
Any
time that cannot be directly related to
an account, (such as billing and accounting
work) will be charged to a special account
number. The Accounting Office totals
these charges for the billing period and
divides them equally among all facilities.
Even if there are no direct charges, the
account may still be billed Administrative
Charges.
The
Overhead Charges are based on the number
of labor hours charged to the account.
The overhead charges consist of rent, travel,
supplies, training, and personnel services.
If there is no labor charged to the account
during the billing period, there will be
no overhead charges for that billing period
with the exception of the last month of
each fiscal year. This is due to the
fact that the labor charges end June 30
for the current fiscal year. However,
several kinds of overhead charges such as
supply orders and travel expenses are paid
after the fiscal year ends. The State
Water Board Accounting Office keeps track
of these charges and distributes them back
to all of the accounts based on the number
of hours charged to each account for the
whole fiscal year that has just ended.
Therefore, the quarterly statements for
the last month of the fiscal year could
show no labor hours charged for the billing
period, but some overhead charges could
be charged to the account.
The
hours charged to an account are totaled
each month by the employee and reported
on a monthly timesheet. The timesheets
are submitted to the Accounting Office and
entered into the automated accounting system,
which computes the Labor and Overhead Charges
based on the hours reported.
The
monthly expenditure information for the
billings are taken from monthly automated
accounting reports. A running balance
on each of the accounts is kept on fee history
sheets in each of the site files.
The information is extracted from the accounting
report and the fee history sheet to produce
the statement, and two copies of the statement
are sent to the responsible party.
If a balance is owed, a check is to be remitted
to the Accounting Office with a copy of
the statement within 15 days after receipt
of the bill. The Accounting Office
sends a report of payments to the Fee Coordinator
to be included in the files.
Copies
of the billings will be sent to the appropriate
Regional Water Boards so they will be updated
on the accounts, if the responsible party
has any questions. If the responsible
party becomes delinquent in their quarterly
payments, oversight work will cease immediately.
Work will not begin again unless the payments
are brought up-to-date.
DAILY
LOGS
A
detailed description (daily log) of the
actual work being done at each specific
site is kept by each employee in the Regional
Water Board who works on the cleanup oversight
at the property. Upon request, these
logs are provided to the responsible party
by the Regional Water Board staff.
They will not be included in the bi-monthly
billing statement.
REMOVAL
FROM THE BILLING SYSTEM
After
the cleanup is complete, the account can
be removed from the active billing system
by the Regional Water Board submitting the
appropriate form to the Fee Coordinator.
If a balance is due, the Fee Coordinator
will send a final billing for the balance
owed. The responsible party should
then submit a check to the Accounting Office
to close the account. The account
is removed from the active billing list
and will no longer be billed.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
No
cleanup oversight will be performed unless
the responsible party of the property acknowledges
in writing that he/she is willing to reimburse
the State for appropriate cleanup oversight
costs. As soon as the acknowledgment
is received, the account will be added to
the active SLIC Cost Recovery billing list
and oversight work will begin. Signing
the acknowledgment does not constitute any
admission of liability. Any questions
regarding the billing process, billing statement
or charges should be directed to the Regional
Board's staff. |
