11.84—Damage determination phase—implementation guidance.
(a) Requirement.
The authorized official should use the cost estimating and valuation methodologies in § 11.83 of this part following the appropriate guidance in this section.
(b) Determining uses.
(1)
Before estimating damages for compensable value under § 11.83 of this part, the authorized official should determine the uses made of the resource services identified in the Quantification phase.
(2)
Only committed uses, as that phrase is used in this part, of the resource or services over the recovery period will be used to measure the change from the baseline resulting from injury to a resource. The baseline uses must be reasonably probable, not just in the realm of possibility. Purely speculative uses of the injured resource are precluded from consideration in the estimation of damages.
(3)
(i)
When resources or resource services have mutually exclusive uses, the highest-and-best use of the injured resource or services, as determined by the authorized official, shall be used as the basis of the analyses required in this part. This determination of the highest-and-best use must be consistent with the requirements of paragraph (b)(2) of this section.
(ii)
If the uses of the resource or service are not necessarily mutually exclusive, the sum of damages should be determined from individual services. However, the sum of the projected damages from individual services shall consider congestion or crowding out effects, if any, from the resulting projected total use of those services.
(c) Double counting.
(1)
Double counting of damages should be avoided. Double counting means that a benefit or cost has been counted more than once in the damage assessment.
(2)
Natural resource damages are the residual to be determined by incorporating the effects, or anticipated effects, of any response actions. To avoid one aspect of double counting, the effects of response actions shall be factored into the analysis of damages. If response actions will not be completed until after the assessment has been initiated, the anticipated effects of such actions should be included in the assessment.
(d) Uncertainty.
(1)
When there are significant uncertainties concerning the assumptions made in all phases of the assessment process, reasonable alternative assumptions should be examined. In such cases, uncertainty should be handled explicitly in the analysis and documented. The uncertainty should be incorporated in the estimates of benefits and costs.
(2)
To incorporate this uncertainty, the authorized official should derive a range of probability estimates for the important assumptions used to determine damages. In these instances, the damage estimate will be the net expected present value of the costs of restoration, rehabilitation, replacement, and/or acquisition of equivalent resources and, if relevant, compensable value.
(e) Discounting.
(1)
Where possible, damages should be estimated in the form of an expected present value dollar amount. In order to perform this calculation, a discount rate must be selected.
(2)
The discount rate to be used is that specified in “Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-94 Revised” (dated March 27, 1972, available from the Executive Office of the President, Publications, 726 Jackson Place, NW., Washington, DC 20503; ph: (202) 395-7372).
(f) Substitutability.
In calculating compensable value, the authorized official should incorporate estimates of the ability of the public to substitute resource services or uses for those of the injured resources. This substitutability should be estimated only if the potential benefits from an increase in accuracy are greater than the potential costs.
(g) Compensable value during the restoration, rehabilitation, replacement, and/or acquisition of equivalent resources.
(1)
In determining the amount of damages, the authorized official has the discretion to compute compensable value for the period of time required to achieve the restoration, rehabilitation, replacement, and/or acquisition of equivalent resources.
(2)
When calculating compensable value during the period of time required to achieve restoration, rehabilitation, replacement, and/or acquisition of equivalent resources, the authorized official should follow the procedures described below. The procedures need not be followed in sequence.
(i)
The ability of the injured resources to recover over the recovery period should be estimated. This estimate includes estimates of natural recovery rates as well as recovery rates that reflect management actions or resource acquisitions to achieve restoration, rehabilitation, replacement, and/or acquisition of equivalent resources.
(ii)
A recovery rate should be selected for this analysis that is based upon cost-effective management actions or resource acquisitions, including a “No Action-Natural Recovery” alternative. After the recovery rate is estimated, compensable value should be estimated.
(iii)
The rate at which the uses of the injured resources and their services will be restored through the restoration or replacement of the services should be estimated. This rate may be discontinuous, that is, no uses are restored until all, or some threshold level, of the services are restored, or continuous, that is, restoration or replacement of uses will be a function of the level and rate of restoration or replacement of the services. Where practicable, the supply of and demand for the restored services should be analyzed, rather than assuming that the services will be utilized at their full capacity at each period of time in the analysis. Compensable value should be discounted using the rate described in paragraph (e)(2) of this section. This estimate is the expected present value of uses obtained through restoration, rehabilitation, replacement, and/or acquisition of equivalent resources.
(iv)
The uses of the resource that would have occurred in the absence of the discharge or release should be estimated. This estimate should be done in accordance with the procedures in § 11.72 of this part. These uses should be estimated over the same time period using the same discount rate as that specified in paragraph (e)(2) of this section. This amount is the expected present value of uses forgone.
(v)
Subtraction of the present value of uses obtained through restoration or replacement from the expected present value of uses forgone gives the amount of compensation that may be included, if positive, in a measure of damages.
(h) Scope of the analysis.
(1)
The authorized official must determine the scope of the analysis in order to estimate compensable value.
(2)
In assessments where the scope of analysis is Federal, only the compensable value to the Nation as a whole should be counted.
(3)
In assessments where the scope of analysis is at the State level, only the compensable value to the State should be counted.
(4)
In assessments where the scope of analysis is at the tribal level, only the compensable value to the tribe should be counted.