On April 1, 2022, the EPA published proposed changes to the electronic manifest (e-Manifest) regulations for exported shipments of hazardous waste for treatment, storage, and disposal.
When the Agency promulgated the e-Manifest User Fee final rule in January 2018, it stated it would not extend these requirements to exported shipments of hazardous waste until it determined “which entity in the export process would be responsible for submitting export manifests to the eManifest system and paying the associated user fees,” states the proposed regulation.
This change to the regulation will require waste handlers exporting manifested hazardous waste shipments out of the United States. to submit the export manifests to the EPA and pay the requisite user fee to process them. Impacted industry will be invoiced for these fees through the EPA e-Manifest system if the proposed regulations are finalized.
The Agency is also proposing changes to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste export and import shipment international movement document requirements to more closely link the manifest data with the international movement document data. Additionally, the Agency proposes changes to three of the manifest-related reports:
- Discrepancy reports
- Exception reports
- Unmanifested waste reports
These proposed changes will allow these reports to be completed electronically through the e-Manifest system.
Other requested changes to these regulations are changes to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) manifest regulations for polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) wastes to align with the e-Manifest program, including the adoption of the e-Manifest rules for PCB wastes required to be tracked through manifests.
With this proposal, the EPA is requesting public comments on how the Agency can begin to integrate biennial reporting requirements with e-Manifest data.
The EPA believes the proposed changes will help streamline the manifest process while increasing the availability of information and improving compliance.
Comments can be made through the Federal eRulemaking Portal under Docket # EPA–HQ–OLEM–2021–0609 until May 31, 2022.