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July 20, 2023
This e-newsletter delivers announcements from EPA's Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery on rulemakings, guidance documents, reports, research, upcoming webinars, and more.
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EPA Celebrates the Fifth Year Anniversary of e-Manifest
 Last month, we celebrated five years since the successful launch of the e-Manifest hazardous waste tracking program at EPA. It’s crucial for hazardous waste shipments to have manifests to document information about the waste, the quantity, the date of the shipment, and the destination. The manifest protects human health and the environment by ensuring hazardous waste is received by a designated facility that is prepared to treat, store, or dispose of the waste properly. Hazardous waste is generated by many sources, ranging from industrial manufacturing process wastes to batteries and may come in many forms, including liquids, solids, gases, and sludges.
For many years, we used a six-copy paper manifest form, but after much research and engagement with Congress, states, tribes, and industry, we launched a completely electronic-based system five years ago. That’s substantial because in an average month, as a country, we transport about 97,000 shipments of hazardous waste across the nation. In an average year, EPA receives about 1.8 million hazardous waste manifests. If you were to print those out, one year’s total manifests would stack up taller than the Washington Monument!
The transition from a paper-intensive process to an electronic system provides substantial benefits for the e-Manifest community, including:
- Cost savings for the hazardous waste industry.
- Improved timeliness of information on waste shipments.
- Rapid notification of discrepancies or other problems about shipments.
- A single hub for reporting of manifest data for use by EPA, states, and the public.
Importantly, e-Manifest users enjoy increased functionality and real-time access to shipment information by EPA and state regulators. Before e-Manifest, only some states collected manifest data and no regulator had nationwide records. We encourage hazardous waste generators, transporters, and disposal facilities to take advantage of fully electronic manifests via the e-Manifest System.
For these reasons, we are proud to celebrate five years of a successful e-manifest system. Happy fifth birthday, e-Manifest!
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EPA Visits Three Tribal Nations
From June 26-28, 2023, Carolyn Hoskinson, the Director of EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, and ORCR staff visited three Tribal Nations bordering Kansas to learn about their environmental initiatives and understand the challenges they face. EPA met with the leaders and members of the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.
EPA learned about work the Sac and Fox Nation is doing to respond to emergencies in a time of increasingly severe weather and their outreach efforts to keep the community well-informed. EPA also learned about the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation’s waste management program, which offers residential pick up, recycling, and composting services to reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Equally impressive was the Iowa Tribe’s regenerative agriculture work at the Ioway Tribal National Park. This work aims to restore the health and diversity of the land and wildlife. EPA is very thankful to the three Tribal Nations for their hospitality and collaboration, as well as their commitment to supporting sustainable environmental goals.
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Improving Tribal Solid Waste Program Capacity and Closing Solid Waste Open Dumps in Navajo Nation
From June 25-30, 2023, the Indian Health Service and U.S. EPA joined the Navajo Nation EPA in a training program and field work to survey large-scale open dumps on Navajo Nation land. Spanning across the states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, the Navajo Nation covers over 27,000 square miles of breathtaking natural beauty. Known as Diné Bikéyah, or Navajoland, it surpasses the size of 10 of the 50 states in America.
The IHS Operation and Maintenance Data System indicates there are nearly 3,300 open dumps nationwide on tribal lands. The 2014 OMDS data show that over 450 open dumps are within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation. Approximately 52 of those across the Nation were anticipated to meet the IHS cleanup criteria of greater than one half acre. The multi-agency teams set out to validate the location and verify the contents of 36 of the sites in the eastern and central areas of the Nation but located several unreported open dumps for a total of 55 verified sites. Fourteen sites are located on the more remote western side of the reservation, which the teams plan to verify and survey in September 2023. We will share details of the work at the Tribal Lands Environment Forum in August in Syracuse, New York.
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EPA Showcases New Community Engagement and Technical Assistance and Good Governance Programs During June 27 Public Meeting
On June 27, 2023, EPA hosted a community meeting in Waukegan, Illinois, to discuss the impacts and regulation of coal ash. As part of this outreach effort and because Waukegan is a community with environmental justice concerns, EPA staff introduced the CETA and Good Governance programs to the meeting attendees. The CETA program offers resources and technical assistance for eligible community organizations and individuals seeking to understand the science of their environmental concerns, community meeting organization, or translation services. The Good Governance program provided attendees that had questions or concerns outside the scope of the topics of the public meeting with specific contact information of subject matter experts for their issues, whether within EPA or external to EPA, as appropriate. The programs also provide a feedback loop for follow-up communications to ensure that questions are fully addressed.
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EPA Launches a New Community Engagement and Technical Assistance Program Webpage
EPA also launched a new webpage in support of the CETA Program. This program is designed to assist communities with addressing their concerns about environmental and health issues about waste management by providing access to support, resources, and information through neutral third parties. These services empower communities to develop informed opinions when participating in environmental decision-making.
CETA services also facilitate effective and active participation in efforts to improve public health. In addition, this program supports grassroots participation and fosters a collaborative working space between EPA and communities. Learn about this program and apply for services on our new webpage.
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EPA Extends Deadline for Public Comment Period for the Waukegan Generating Station Proposed Denial
On July 12, 2023, EPA extended the timeframe by which interested parties have to submit comments to a recent proposal for the Waukegan Generating Station. The proposed determination denies the request for a deadline extension for initiating closure of unlined surface impoundments with coal combustion residuals. Midwest Generation, LLC for the Waukegan Generating Station in Waukegan, Illinois submitted the application.
EPA will now be collecting public comments on this proposal through the docket in Regulations.gov through to September 5, 2023. Read more on our implementation webpage.
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EPA Announced User Fees for e-Manifest for Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025
The “e-Manifest Act” authorizes EPA to implement a national electronic manifest system and requires that the costs of developing and operating the e-Manifest system be recovered from user fees charged to those who use hazardous waste manifests to track off-site shipments of their wastes. In accordance with the User Fee Final Rule published in 2018, EPA must revise user fee schedules at two-year intervals and publish those user fees by July 1 of every odd-numbered year. Revisions are based on usage projections and the cost of developing and operating the e-Manifest system.
For the upcoming period, fees have increased 10% for image only manifests, but have decreased 23% for data plus image manifests and 25% for fully electronic/hybrid manifests. Read more on our website.
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EPA Issues Partial Reclamation Variances for HVF Metals Recovery Facility in Arizona
On July 5, 2023, EPA granted a petition for partial reclamation variances from classification as solid waste for two precious metals-bearing materials for a facility in Tucson, Arizona. These materials are produced from electroplating wastes by HVF Precious Metals, LLC. EPA’s determination is that both materials are commodity-like and are legitimately recycled, so they qualify for variances from classification as solid wastes. The effect of this kind of variance is that it exempts the material from the hazardous waste regulations, including the hazardous waste manifest requirements.
Read about this determination on our website.
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The purpose of this newsletter is to provide interested parties with updates about the federal solid and hazardous waste programs, such as information about rulemakings, upcoming webinars, guidance documents, open comment periods, and other related communications.
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