Requirements for Generators, Transporters, and Waste Management Facilities under the RCRA Hazardous Waste Manifest System – Proposed Fee Rule (Proposed Rule)
ICR 201605-2050-001
OMB: 2050-0039
Federal Form Document
⚠️ Notice: This information collection may be outdated. More recent filings for OMB 2050-0039 can be found here:
Requirements for Generators,
Transporters, and Waste Management Facilities under the RCRA
Hazardous Waste Manifest System – Proposed Fee Rule (Proposed
Rule)
OMB files this
comment in accordance with 5 CFR 1320.11( c ). This OMB action is
not an approval to conduct or sponsor an information collection
under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This action has no
effect on any current approvals. If OMB has assigned this ICR a new
OMB Control Number, the OMB Control Number will not appear in the
active inventory. For future submissions of this information
collection, reference the OMB Control Number provided. OMB files
this comment in accordance with 5 CFR 1320.11(c). OMB is
withholding approval at this time. Prior to publication of the
final rule, the agency should provide a summary of any comments
related to the information collection and their response, including
any changes made to the ICR as a result of comments. In addition,
the agency must enter the correct burden estimates.
Inventory as of this Action
Requested
Previously Approved
05/31/2019
36 Months From Approved
05/31/2019
1,763,362
0
1,763,362
3,473,577
0
3,473,577
3,067,511
0
3,067,511
Section 3002(a)(5) of the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) directs the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to “...establish requirements
respecting...use of a manifest system and any other reasonable
means necessary to assure that all such hazardous waste generated
is designated for treatment, storage, or disposal, and arrives at
treatment, storage, or disposal facilities...for which a permit has
been issued...” Under this authority, EPA published regulations for
a manifest system on February 26, 1980 (45 FR 12724). EPA
established requirements for manifest completion, transmittal, and
recordkeeping for hazardous waste generators at 40 CFR Part 262,
Subpart B, for transporters at Part 263, Subpart B, and for
treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs) at Parts 264
and 265, Subpart E. EPA also requires the use of the Uniform
Hazardous Waste Manifest (UHWM or manifest). Since then, EPA has
modified the manifest regulations on a number of occasions. On
February 7, 2014, EPA finalized a rule to establish new
requirements that will authorize the use of electronic manifests
(or e-Manifests) as a means to track offsite shipments of hazardous
waste from a generator’s site to the site of the receipt and
disposition of the hazardous waste (79 FR 7518-7563). The final
e-Manifest rule also implemented the provisions of the Hazardous
Waste Electronic Manifest Establishment Act, P.L. 112-195, which
directs EPA to establish a national electronic manifest system (or
e-Manifest system). The rule clarifies explicitly that electronic
manifest documents obtained from the Agency’s national e-Manifest
system and completed in accordance with the rule’s provisions are
the legal equivalent of the paper manifest forms that are currently
authorized for use in tracking hazardous waste shipments. The
electronic manifest documents authorized by the final regulation
will be available to manifest users as an alternative to the paper
manifest forms. EPA is now proposing a user fee methodology that
would be applicable to the use of electronic and paper manifests
that would be submitted to the e-Manifest system that is being
established by EPA under the Act (called the proposed “fee rule”).
After the implementation date for the e-Manifest system, certain
users of the hazardous waste manifest will be required to pay a
prescribed fee for each electronic and paper manifest they use and
submit to the system, in order for EPA to recover its costs of
developing and operating the e-Manifest system. EPA is also
proposing several amendments to the regulations governing the use
of electronic hazardous waste manifests and the completion of
manifests. This ICR describes the existing hazardous waste manifest
regulations, including the e-Manifest final rule. It also describes
amendments in the proposed fee rule. In addition, it estimates the
annual hour and cost burden to respondents and EPA under these
existing and proposed requirements.
US Code:
42
USC 3002 Name of Law: SWDA
US Code: 42
USC 3004 Name of Law: SWDA
US Code: 42
USC 3003 Name of Law: SWDA
US Code: 42
USC 6901 Name of Law: Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act
The burden-hour decrease in
this proposed rule ICR (0801.21) results from both program changes
(-545,512 hours) as well as adjustments due to Agency discretion
(925,224 hours), as follows: • The program changes result from the
fact that the currently approved ICR (0801.20) addresses the
existing paper-based manifest system; on the other hand, this ICR
addresses the existing paper-based manifest system in addition to
electronic manifesting under the e-Manifest final rule (79 FR
7518-7563). This ICR also addresses several amendments in the
proposed fee rule. During the 3-year life of this ICR, EPA
estimates that 28% of manifests will be prepared and transmitted
electronically on average. The RIA of the proposed fee rule
indicates that electronic manifesting will result in substantial
savings to respondents. For example, it estimates that manifest
preparation and transmittal will experience an 80% burden reduction
when associated with electronic manifests. This ICR reflects these
effects, where appropriate. The e-Manifest rule and proposed fee
rule also add a few new requirements; however, their burden is more
than offset by the burden decrease from electronic manifests. • The
adjustments due to Agency discretion result from the fact that EPA
updated the number of generators, as well as the number of
manifests prepared per generator, in this ICR. Whereas ICR 0801.20
estimates 161,720 generators preparing manifests, this ICR
estimates 50,642 generators preparing manifests. Note that the
number of SQGs decreased significantly in this ICR. The SQG
estimate in this ICR was taken from the RIA of the proposed fee
rule. The RIA’s estimate is based on the estimation approaches and
results in EPA’s Economic Analysis (EA) of the 2015 Hazardous Waste
Generator Improvements proposed rule (80 FR 57918; September 25,
2015). In the EA, EPA pioneered methodologies to estimate active
SQGs using data files that underpin the RCRA Biennial Report. In
total, ICR 0801.20 estimates that 1.9 million manifests are
prepared, transmitted and retained by all waste handlers annually,
whereas this ICR estimates 1.4 million manifests annually. In
addition, this ICR estimates user fees for paper and electronic
manifests in accordance with the proposed fee rule (fees are
reflected as O&M costs in this ICR). These fees result in an
overall increase in costs. The Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest
Establishment Act, P.L. 112-195, authorizes EPA to impose on
manifest users “reasonable service fees as the Administrator
determines to be necessary to pay costs incurred in developing,
operating, maintaining, and upgrading the system, including any
costs incurred in collecting and processing data from any paper
manifest submitted to the system after the date on which the system
enters operation.” ICR 0801.20 does not include user fees because
it addresses the current paper-based system which does not impose
fees.
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the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
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