§304.22. Appointment of Arbitrator. — Inbound Citations

(c) Arbitrator means the person appointed in accordance with § 304.22 of this part and governed by the provisions of this part.

(iii) A statement that the parties consent to resolution of the issues jointly submitted pursuant to the procedures established by this part by an Arbitrator appointed pursuant to § 304.22 of this part;

(a) A person appointed as an Arbitrator under § 304.22 of this part shall, within five days of receipt of his or her notice of appointment, disclose to the Association any circumstances likely to affect impartiality, including any bias or any financial or personal interest in the result of the arbitration, or any past or present relationship with the parties or their counsel, or any past or present relationship with any PRP to which the claim may relate.

(b) Any party may move to withdraw from the arbitral proceeding within thirty days after receipt of the notice of appointment of the Arbitrator (see § 304.22 of this part). The Arbitrator may approve such withdrawal, without prejudice to the moving party, and shall assess such administrative fees and expenses (see § 304.41 of this part) against the withdrawing party as the Arbitrator deems appropriate. No party may withdraw from the arbitral proceedings after this thirty-day period, except that EPA may withdraw from the proceeding in accordance with § 304.20(b)(3) or § 304.33(e) of this part.

(b) Within thirty days after receipt of the notice of appointment of the Arbitrator (see § 304.22 of this part), EPA shall submit to the Arbitrator two copies of a written statement and shall serve a copy of the written statement upon all other parties. The written statement shall in all cases include the information requested in paragraphs (b)(1), (b)(6), and (b)(7) of this section, shall include the information requested in paragraph (b)(2) of this section if the issue of liability of any participating PRP has been submitted for resolution, shall include the information requested in paragraph (b)(3) of this section if any issue concerning the adequacy of EPA's response action has been submitted for resolution or may arise during the Arbitrator's determination of the dollar amount of response costs recoverable by EPA, shall include the information requested in paragraph (b)(4) of this section if the issue of the dollar amount of response costs recoverable by EPA has been submitted for resolution, and shall include the information requested in paragraph (b)(5) of this section if any issue concerning allocation of liability for payment of EPA's award has been submitted for resolution.

(1) A statement of facts, including a description of the facility, the EPA response action taken at the facility, the response costs incurred and to be incurred by the United States in connection with the response action taken at the facility, and the parties;

(2) A description of the evidence in support of the following four elements of liability of the participating PRP(s) whose liability pursuant to section 107(a) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. 9607(a), is at issue, and any supporting documentation therefor:

(i) The site at which EPA's response action was taken is a facility as defined by section 101(9) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. 9601(9);

(ii) There was a release or threat of release within the meaning of sections 101(22) and 104(a) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. 9601(22) and 9604(a), of a hazardous substance as defined by section 101(14) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C 9601(14), at the facility at which EPA's response action was taken;

(iii) The release or threat of release caused the United States to incur response costs as defined in § 304.12(o) of this part; and

(iv) The participating PRP is in one of the categories of liable parties in section 107(a) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. 9607(a);

(3) An index of any documents which formed the basis for the selection of the response action taken at the facility (all indexed documents shall be made available to any participating PRP);

(4) A summary, broken down by category, of all response costs incurred and to be incurred by the United States in connection with the response action taken by EPA at the facility (supporting documentation for the summary shall be made available to any participating PRP pursuant to the procedures described in Rule 1006 of the Federal Rules of Evidence);

(5) To the extent such information is available, the names and addresses of all identified PRPs for the facility, the volume and nature of the substances contributed to the facility by each identified PRP, and a ranking by volume of the substances contributed to the facility;

(6) A recommended location for the pre-hearing conference and the arbitral hearing; and

(a) The Arbitrator and the parties shall exchange witness lists (with a brief summary of the testimony of each witness) and any exhibits or documents that the parties have not submitted in their pleadings pursuant to § 304.30 of this part, within 110 days after the appointment of the Arbitrator (see § 304.22 of this part) or within 10 days prior to the pre-hearing conference, whichever is earlier.

(c) The Association may remove the Arbitrator in any proceeding in which it is demonstrated to the Association's satisfaction that the Arbitrator has engaged in prohibited ex parte communication to the prejudice of any party. If the Arbitrator is removed, the procedures in § 304.22(d) of this part shall apply.

(e) Prior to the selection of the Association, the Administrator and one or more PRPs associated with a facility may agree to submit one or more issues arising in an EPA claim for resolution by arbitration. Any such agreement shall be contained in a joint request for arbitration which meets all requirements of paragraph (b) of this section. In any such arbitration, the arbitrator shall be selected pursuant to § 304.22(e) of this part, and payment of all costs associated with the arbitration shall be made pursuant to § 304.41(e) of this part. Arbitrations agreed upon pursuant to this paragraph shall be governed by the procedures established by this part, except for those procedures which pertain specifically to the duties of the Association. All duties of the Association shall be performed in a manner agreed upon by all of the parties.