(a)  The local agency, the board, or the regional board shall advise and work with the owner, operator, or other responsible party on the opportunity to seek preapproval of corrective action costs pursuant to Section 2811.4 of Title 23 of the California Code of Regulations or any successor regulation. Regional board staff and local agency staff shall work with the responsible party and fund staff to obtain preapproval for the responsible party. The fund staff shall grant or deny a request for preapproval within 30 calendar days after the date a request is received. If fund staff denies a request for preapproval or fails to act within 30 calendar days after receiving the request, an owner, operator, or other responsible party who has prepared a work plan that has been reviewed and accepted pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (c) of Section 25296.10, and is denied preapproval of corrective action costs for one or more of the actions required by the work plan, may petition the board for review of the request for preapproval. The board shall review the petition pursuant to Section 25299.56, and for that purpose the petition for review of a request for preapproval of corrective action costs shall be reviewed by the board in the same manner as a petition for review of an unpaid claim.

(b)  If the board receives a petition for review pursuant to subdivision (a), the board shall review the request for preapproval and grant or deny the request pursuant to this subdivision and subdivision (c). The board shall deny the request for preapproval if the board makes one of the following findings:

(1)  The petitioner is not eligible to file a claim pursuant to Article 6 (commencing with Section 25299.50).

(2)  The petitioner failed to submit one or more of the documents required by the regulations adopted by the board governing preapproval.

(3)  The petitioner failed to obtain three bids or estimates for corrective action costs and, under the circumstances pertaining to the corrective action, there is no valid reason to waive the three-bid requirement pursuant to the regulations adopted by the board.

(c)  If the board does not deny the request for preapproval pursuant to subdivision (b), the board shall grant the request for preapproval. However, the board may modify the request by denying preapproval of corrective action costs or reducing the preapproval amount of those costs for any action required by the work plan, if the board finds that the fund staff has demonstrated either of the following:

(1)  The amount of corrective action reimbursement requested for the action is not reasonable. In determining if the fund staff has demonstrated that the amount of reimbursement requested for an action is not reasonable, the board shall use, when available, recent experience with bids or estimates for similar actions.

(2)  The action required in the work plan is, in all likelihood, not necessary for the corrective action to comply with the requirements of subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section 25296.10 and the corrective action regulations adopted pursuant to Section 25299.3.

(Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 999, Sec. 37. Effective January 1, 2003.)