S. 710: Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest Establishment Act

112th Congress

A bill to amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a hazardous waste electronic manifest system.

Sponsor: Sen. John Thune — R — SD

Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a hazardous waste electronic manifest system within three years that may be used by a hazardous waste generator or transporter, an owner or operator of a hazardous waste treatment, storage, recycling, or disposal facility, or any other person that: (1) is required to use a manifest to comply with any federal or state requirement to track the shipment, transportation, and receipt of hazardous waste or other material shipped from the generation site to an off-site facility for treatment, storage, disposal, or recycling; and (2) elects to use the system to complete and transmit an electronic manifest format; or (3) submits to the system for data processing purposes a paper copy of the manifest (or data from such a paper copy). Authorizes the Administrator to: (1) impose service fees on users to pay for 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; and (2) deposit the fees into the Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest System Fund (a revolving fund established by this Act). Requires the Administrator to adjust such fees to a level that will result in the collection of an amount that is sufficient and no more than reasonably necessary to cover system-related costs and minimize the accumulation of unused amounts in the Fund. Authorizes the Administrator, after consulting with the Secretary of Transportation (DOT), to enter into information technology contracts with appropriate entities for the provision of system-related services. Limits such contracts to a term of no more than 10 years. Requires the Administrator to: (1) establish the Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest System Advisory Board, and (2) carry out this Act in each state unless the state program is fully authorized to do so. Requires a designated facility that receives waste, in cases in which the state in which waste is generated or transported to such facility requires that the waste be tracked through a hazardous waste manifest, to: (1) complete the facility portion of the applicable manifest, (2) sign and date the facility certification, and (3) submit to the system a final copy of the manifest. Establishes reporting requirements. Authorizes appropriations for FY2013-FY2015 for start-up activities to carry out this Act that will be offset by the collection of such user fees.

View the full vote history of this bill on GovTrack.us.