Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest System (“e-Manifest”)

Highlights

Legislation Background and Highlights

For over a decade, the U. S. EPA, states, industry and related stakeholders have had a mutual interest in developing a national electronic manifest system that would facilitate the electronic transmission of the uniform manifest form and make the use of the uniform manifest much more cost-effective and convenient for users. On October 5, 2012, President Obama signed into law, the “Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest Establishment Act” which authorizes the U. S. EPA to implement a national electronic manifest system. Commonly referred to as “e-Manifest”, this national system is envisioned to be implemented by the EPA in partnership with industry and states.

Highlights from the Act:

Milestones for EPA Actions:

The Act requires that the e-Manifest Information Technology (IT) system must be up and running within three years after the Act is passed
The EPA must issue regulation authorizing use of electronic manifests within one year after the Act is passed
The EPA must establish a System Advisory Board within three years after the Act is passed in order to advise the EPA on system performance and user fees

Scope provisions:

e-Manifest extends to all federally- and state-regulated wastes requiring manifests
Allows that the use of electronic manifests is optional for users, and authorizes centralized collection of data from electronic and paper manifests

Fee and spending provisions:

Authorizes the EPA to collect reasonable user fees for all system related costs including development and maintenance

Oversight: Requires that the EPA conduct annual Inspector General (IG) audits and submit biennial reports to Congress

Consistency: The Act requires that EPA must establish a uniform effective date in all states for e-Manifest, and must implement e-Manifest until States are authorized

Rulemaking and Getting Involved in System Planning

EPA is required to promulgate a final regulation authorizing e-Manifest no later than October 5, 2013. In 2013, EPA intends to issue a final rule to authorize the use of electronic manifests that are created and transmitted through the e-Manifest system. The rulemaking will clarify key policy issues associated with implementing the e-Manifest. As our rulemaking efforts continue, the Agency will continue to work closely with our State and Federal partners. For more information about the e-Manifest rulemaking process, see our FAQs page.

EPA has hosted a series of activities designed to engage users and stakeholders in e-Manifest system planning, and will continue to engage stakeholders moving forward. These activities will focus on e-Manifest information technology (IT) system planning and will include participation from industry, states, and other interested stakeholders. These activities have and will include meetings to discuss system requirements as well as avenues through which to gather information about the current state of technology. Development of the rulemaking is distinct from this effort and outside the scope of these meetings.

e-Manifest System Request for Information

EPA is currently conducting a Request for Information (RFI) seeking input from contractors regarding capabilities, approaches, tools, software or other components that would be relevant to the implementation of e-Manifest. This current RFI builds on a previously conducted RFI in January 2013, and seeks information on contract and funding approaches. For more information, please visit the e-Manifest RFI page.

e-Manifest System Requirements Gathering Meetings

EPA held three face-to-face meetings intended to bring together e-Manifest stakeholders to discuss requirements for the e-Manifest system. In addition, separate webinars were held to discuss specific topics as needed, as well as to reach stakeholders not able to attend the face-to-face meetings. Please check Meeting Details for meeting summaries.

The purpose of the face-to-face meetings was to build off of the previous efforts that were conducted to collect requirements (see e-Manifest previous activities) and engage stakeholders on current expectations and technical requirements. Each meeting was a day and a half.

Face to face meetings occurred on the following dates and at the following locations:

February 25-26, 2013, Arlington, VA (please check Meeting Details for meeting summaries)
March 14-15, 2013, Chicago, IL
March 21-22, 2013, Denver, CO

FR Notice announcing meetings (PDF) (8 pp, 1.6 Mb)

Invitation letter to state attendees (PDF) (3 pp, 98.8 Kb)

Invitation letter to industry attendees (PDF) (3 pp, 97.8 Kb)

e-Manifest ListServ

The purpose of the e-Manifest ListServ is to provide an open forum for the posting and discussion of news and information relating to the e-Manifest program. EPA will use this listserv to provide stakeholders with system and program announcements and updates. For example, when information changes on EPA’s e-Manifest website, a note will be sent out to the ListServ. This Listserv can also be used to facilitate e-Manifest conversations amongst the stakeholder and user community. Please note the code of conduct for the ListServ that is included in the welcome email you receive once you subscribe.

Here are directions for joining and using the e-Manifest ListServ:

SUBSCRIBE: Send a blank message to: eManifest-subscribe@lists.epa.gov. Once your email is subscribed to the list, you will receive a welcome email indicating you are a member. After that, you are able receive any messages sent to the list, as well as contribute messages to the list.
CONTRIBUTE TO THE LIST: Send a message to: eManifest@lists.epa.gov.
UNSUBSCRIBE: Send a blank message to: eManifest-unsubscribe@lists.epa.gov.

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