September 5, 2018

Two Months of the e-Manifest System

Now that the e-manifest system has been live for two months, the regulated community is beginning to adjust to its use. With the system’s implementation comes a variety of new questions and issues that EPA has been addressing. Below is a breakdown of the use of e-manifest, operational questions, and a summary of what’s new since June 30. Additional issues and tidbits were addressed in a previous McCoy article.

Based on usage statistics provided from EPA’s August 29 webinar, the system went from having 466 electronic submittals per day in July to 2,371 submittals per day in August. That is more than a 400% increase in one month. Of the more than 55,000 total electronic submittals to date, 59% were made via “data + image” upload, 40% via “scanned image” upload, and less that 1% were made fully utilizing the e-manifest system with a completely electronic submittal.
There is a new update to the e-manifest frequently asked questions, which now contains more than 125 questions and answers. One question that often comes up is whether or not a Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest for a shipment that contains only nonhazardous waste still needs to be submitted to the e-manifest system. The answer is Yes; if either the generating or receiving state requires a manifest for the nonhazardous waste, then the manifest must be submitted to the e-manifest system.
Manifests for imports must be submitted to the e-manifest system. This manifest submittal requirement would not apply to exports as EPA cannot collect a fee from a foreign receiving facility.
Sometimes a foreign (e.g., Canadian) transporter, that is not registered with e-manifest, may be used to ship a waste. This can complicate how to input information—an address, EPA ID number, or zip-code—related to a transporter in the e-manifest system. To address this, EPA recommends placing “Not Required” in the applicable fields and “00000” for a zip-code. In some cases, a state or EPA region may assign a foreign transporter an EPA ID number. [August 7, 2018 email from Scott Christian to the e-manifest listserv mailing list]
There is a new e-manifest Billing Fact Sheet which discusses paying bills, late fees, and invoice disputes.
EPA has decided to include the 56 P/U-waste codes that overlap with the Department of Homeland Security’s chemicals of interest in the e-manifest system. Manifests that contain these wastes codes can be submitted electronically, but the information will be withheld from public disclosure indefinitely.
Functionality for brokers and transporters to initiate a manifest will be developed over the coming months. The ability for industry users to correct manifest data should be in place by the end of September.
Brokers who will be initiating e-manifests will need an EPA ID number. If the state in which the broker is located has opted in to myRCRAid, the broker can obtain the EPA ID number via RCRAInfo. If the state has not opted in, then an EPA ID number can be obtained by reaching out to the appropriate contact. [August 20, 2018 email from Stephen Donnelly to the e-manifest listserv mailing list]

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This document addresses issues of a general nature related to the federal RCRA regulations. Persons evaluating specific circumstances dealing with the RCRA regulations should review state and local laws and regulations, which may be more stringent than federal requirements. In addition, the assistance of a qualified professional should be enlisted to address any site-specific circumstances.