Document ID: EPA-HQ-OLEM-2021-0608-0001
Agency: epa
Document Type: Notice
Title: Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest System (e-Manifest); Notice of Public Meetings held on October 27, 2021, and November 3, 2021
Posted Date: 2021-09-30T04:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 187 (Thursday, September 30, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54188-54190]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-21231]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OLEM-2021-0608; FRL-9080-01-OLEM]

Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest System (e-Manifest); Notice 
of Public Meetings

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of virtual public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will host virtual 
public meetings to discuss how to increase adoption of electronic 
manifests and solicit feedback from stakeholders. The agenda for both 
meetings will be identical and all stakeholders are encouraged to 
attend one of the meetings.

DATES: The meetings will be held on October 27, 2021, and November 3, 
2021, from approximately 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. EST. Additional public 
meetings may be added. Please refer to the e-Manifest website at 
https://www.epa.gov/e-manifest/electronic-manifest-public-meetings.

ADDRESSES: The public meetings will be conducted virtually. 
Registration is required to attend and participate during these 
meetings. EPA can accommodate 100 attendees at each meeting and may 
hold additional virtual meetings, if needed. Please refer to the e-
Manifest website at https://www.epa.gov/e-manifest/electronic-manifest-public-meetings for information on how to register.
    Comments. Oral comments will be accepted throughout each of the 
public meetings. Written comments will be accepted prior to and after 
the public meetings. Any written comments should be submitted on or 
before December 30, 2021, and should be submitted in the public docket 
under docket ID number EPA-HQ-OLEM-2021-0608 by any of the following 
methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov/ 
(our preferred method). Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments.
     Mail: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket 
Center, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, Docket No. EPA-
HQ-OLEM-2021-0608, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 
Washington, DC 20460.
     Hand Delivery or Courier (by scheduled appointment only): 
EPA Docket Center, WJC West Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution 
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004. The Docket Center's hours of 
operations are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday (except Federal 
Holidays).
    Comments received may be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov/ including any personal information provided. For 
detailed instructions on sending comments and additional information on 
the rulemaking process, see the ``Public Participation'' heading of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document. Out of an abundance 
of caution for members of the public and our staff, the EPA Docket 
Center and Reading Room are open to the public by appointment only to 
reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19. Our Docket Center staff also 
continues to provide remote customer service via email, phone, and 
webform. Hand deliveries and couriers may be received by scheduled 
appointment only. For further information on EPA Docket Center services 
and the current status, please visit us online at https://www.epa.gov/dockets.
    Special accommodations. For information on access or services for

[[Page 54189]]

individuals with disabilities, or to request accommodation of a 
disability, please contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT at least ten (10) days prior to the meeting to give 
the EPA as much time as possible to process your request.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tess Fields, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, email: 
fields.tess@epa.gov, phone (before October 31, 2021): 703-605-0509, 
phone (after October 31, 2021): 202-566-0328.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: These meetings will be open to the public. 
The full agenda and meeting materials will be available in the docket 
for the meeting and on the e-Manifest website at https://www.epa.gov/e-manifest/electronic-manifest-public-meetings. The public meetings will 
be conducted virtually, and registration is required to attend and 
participate. Registration instructions will be posted on the e-Manifest 
website at https://www.epa.gov/e-manifest/electronic-manifest-public-meetings. If EPA needs to make subsequent changes to this meeting, EPA 
will post future notices to its e-Manifest website. EPA strongly 
encourages the public to refer to the e-Manifest website for the latest 
meeting information, as sudden changes may be necessary.

I. General Information

A. Does this action apply to me?

    This action is directed to the public in general. This action may 
be of particular interest to persons who are or may be subject to the 
Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest Establishment (e-Manifest) Act.

B. Public Participation

    You may participate in this meeting by providing public comments 
via the instructions in this notice. Submit your comments, identified 
by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2021-0608, at https://www.regulations.gov 
(our preferred method), or the other methods identified in the 
ADDRESSES section. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed 
from the docket. The EPA may publish any comment received to its public 
docket. Do not submit to EPA's docket at https://www.regulations.gov 
any information you consider to be Confidential Business Information 
(CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. 
Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be accompanied by a 
written comment. The written comment is considered the official comment 
and should include discussion of all points you wish to make. The EPA 
will generally not consider comments or comment contents located 
outside of the primary submission (e.g., on the web, cloud, or other 
file sharing system). For additional submission methods, the full EPA 
public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, 
and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
    1. Written comments. EPA encourages the electronic submission of 
written comments into Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2021-0608 at https://www.regulations.gov (our preferred method), or the other methods 
identified in the ADDRESSES section, on or before December 30, 2021, to 
provide the e-Manifest program the time necessary to consider and 
review the written comments.
    Due to public health concerns related to COVID-19, the EPA Docket 
Center and Reading Room are open to the public by appointment only. Our 
Docket Center staff also continues to provide remote customer service 
via email, phone, and webform. Hand deliveries or couriers will be 
received by scheduled appointment only. For further information and 
updates on EPA Docket Center services, please visit us online at 
https://www.epa.gov/dockets. The EPA continues to carefully and 
continuously monitor information from the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention (CDC), local area health departments, and our Federal 
partners so that we can respond rapidly as conditions change regarding 
COVID-19.
    2. Oral comments. Oral comments will be accepted throughout each of 
the public meetings.

C. Purpose of the Public Meeting

    The EPA will host virtual public meetings to discuss how to 
increase adoption of electronic manifests and solicit feedback from 
stakeholders.
    EPA launched the e-Manifest system on June 30, 2018. e-Manifest 
provides those persons required to use a Resource Conservation and 
Recovery Act (RCRA) manifest under either federal or state law the 
option of using electronic manifests to track shipments of hazardous 
waste and to meet certain RCRA requirements. By enabling the transition 
from a paper-intensive process to an electronic system, EPA estimates 
e-Manifest will ultimately save state and industry users more than $50 
million annually, once electronic manifests are widely adopted.
    Since system inception through August 31, 2021, EPA has received 
roughly eighteen thousand electronic manifests (both fully electronic 
and hybrid manifests) out of a total of approximately six million 
manifests. Electronic manifests thus represent less than a half of a 
percent of manifests received by EPA. EPA seeks to dramatically 
increase this percentage. In June 2019, EPA consulted the Hazardous 
Waste Electronic Manifest System Advisory Board (e-Manifest Advisory 
Board) to better understand the barriers to using electronic manifests 
and to identify actions the Agency can take to improve 
implementation.\1\ The e-Manifest Advisory Board, in their meeting 
minutes issued to the Agency on September 23, 2019, identified numerous 
challenges for generators and transporters in using the current 
electronic manifest process and made several recommendations to the 
Agency on overcoming these challenges.\2\
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    \1\ The Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest System Advisory 
Board is established in accordance with the provisions of the 
Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest Establishment Act, 42 U.S.C. 
6939g, and the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. App. 
2.
    \2\ Background materials, final meeting minutes, and the Agency 
response for the June 2019 e-Manifest Advisory Board public meeting 
can be located at http://www.regulations.gov Docket no. EPA-HQ-OLEM-
2019-0194.
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    In April 2020, EPA consulted the e-Manifest Advisory Board on 
options for increasing use of electronic manifests, specifically 
regarding the Agency's proposal to reengineer electronic signatures for 
generators and transporters. This also included the Agency's proposed 
position that requirements under EPA's Cross-Media Electronic Reporting 
Rule (CROMERR) would only apply to electronic signatures for receiving 
facilities when submitting the final, signed manifest to EPA. Based on 
the e-Manifest Advisory Board's feedback, the Agency confirmed its 
position in its response to the e-Manifest Advisory Board issued in 
October 2020.\3\ The Agency subsequently implemented a new ``Quick 
Sign'' feature in e-Manifest for generators, transporters, and initial 
electronic signatures by the receiving facility.
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    \3\ Background materials, final meeting minutes, and the Agency 
response for the April 2020 e-Manifest Advisory Board public meeting 
can be located at http://www.regulations.gov Docket no. EPA-HQ-OLEM-
2020-0075.
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    In its October 2020 response to the e-Manifest Advisory Board, the 
Agency acknowledged that the new ``Quick Sign'' feature was not 
expected to significantly increase adoption of electronic manifests. 
Therefore, EPA committed to hold additional public meetings with 
stakeholders to discuss the feasibility of further options for

[[Page 54190]]

subsequent consultation by the e-Manifest Advisory Board.
    Therefore, the purpose of the public meetings announced today is to 
engage stakeholders in discussion regarding how to increase industry 
adoption of electronic manifests. The agenda for both meetings will be 
identical and all stakeholders are encouraged to attend one of the 
meetings. These meetings are expected to include discussion regarding:
    (1) Current electronic manifest functionality and workflow;
    (2) Potential option to allow receiving facilities to upload 
electronic signatures to EPA;
    (3) Other potential options, including options that may require 
policy or regulatory change.
    EPA intends to use information obtained from these public meetings 
to inform future options for consideration by the e-Manifest Advisory 
Board.

    Dated: September 24, 2021.
Elizabeth Shaw,
Acting Director, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, Office 
of Land and Emergency Management.
[FR Doc. 2021-21231 Filed 9-29-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P