In late June, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new proposed rule on the methodology for setting and revising user fees for the hazardous waste electronic manifest (e-Manifest) system. This is part of a larger development project aiming for a national system of tracking hazardous waste electronically.
According to the EPA, the e-Manifest system “will improve access to higher quality and more timely shipment data and will significantly reduce burden associated with the current paper system”.
This particular proposal involves the user fee methodology, specifically the following considerations:
who must pay e-Manifest user fees;
the types of transactions that will give rise to fees;
the formula that will be used to set fees;
options for making fee payments;
the process EPA will use to revise fees; and
the possible sanctions for non-payment.
The EPA also proposes “to tailor user fees according to whether manifests are submitted electronically or via paper to reflect the varying processing costs of these options”. The rule is currently open for comment on the Federal Register.