1. (a) Standard costs. The following table lists charges for copies and related services.
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2. (b) Personnel and overhead charge. A personnel charge of $15 per hour plus an overhead charge of 20% of the personnel charge will be added to the costs of any request involving:

   1. (1) more than 50 pages;
   2. (2) copying of information located in two or more buildings that are not physically connected with each other;
   3. (3) copying of information located in a remote storage facility;
   4. (4) retrieval of information that is older than five years and will require more than five hours to make available for inspection; or
   5. (5) retrieval of information that will completely fill six or more archival boxes and will require more than five hours to make available for inspection.
3. (c) Document inspection. If editing of confidential information is required in order to obtain access to a record for inspection, the department may charge for the cost of making copies to edit.

4. (d) Estimated charges.

   1. (1) If a request will result in the imposition of a charge that exceeds $40, the department will provide the requestor:

      1. (A) an itemized statement detailing all estimated charges; and
      2. (B) an identification of any less costly alternative that is available.

   2. (2) If a less costly alternative is specified, the itemized statement will inform the requestor of the need to contact the department regarding the alternative and will inform the requestor:

      1. (A) that the request will be considered to be automatically withdrawn if the requestor does not, within 10 days of the date of the notice and in writing, accept the charges or modify the request; and
      2. (B) that the requestor may respond by mail, in person, by facsimile transmission, or by electronic mail.
   3. (3) If, before the requested information is made available, it is determined that actual charges will exceed the charges identified in paragraph (1) of this subsection by 20% or more, the department will send the requestor an updated itemized statement detailing all estimated charges that will be imposed.
   4. (4) If an itemized or updated itemized statement is provided under paragraphs (1) or (3) of this subsection and the requestor does not accept the estimated charges in writing or modify the request in writing within 10 days of the date of the notice, the request will be considered to have been withdrawn by the requestor.
   5. (5) Actual charges will not exceed the estimated charges in the itemized statement provided under paragraph (1) of this subsection by more than 20%, or if an updated itemized statement is provided under paragraph (3) of this subsection, actual charges will not exceed the estimated charges in the updated itemized statement.

5. (e) Payment.

   1. (1) Payment of charges is due prior to release of copies of records.
   2. (2) Upon release of copies of records, the department will provide to the requestor a statement describing all charges, including the amount of time required for retrieval and copying, when personnel and overhead charges are included. The statement will be signed by an authorized employee with that employee's name typed or printed below the signature.

6. (f) Waiver.

   1. (1) When an employee files an internal employee grievance, the department will provide copies of relevant records free of charge to an official party to the proceeding. The department's General Counsel will determine which records are relevant under this subsection.
   2. (2) The department may waive or reduce the fees charged under subsections (a) and (b) of this section if the executive director, the district engineer with jurisdiction over the records, or the division director with jurisdiction over the records determines a waiver to be in the public interest because providing the records primarily benefits the general public or because the records can be produced at a minimal expense to the public.

Source Note:The provisions of this §3.13 adopted to be effective September 26, 1996, 21 TexReg 8955; amended to be effective October 20, 1997, 22 TexReg 10155; amended to be effective July 23, 2000, 25 TexReg 6802; amended to be effective October 21, 2001, 26 TexReg 8194; amended to be effective November 18, 2004, 29 TexReg 10582.