If you sign hazardous waste manifests for your company, have you been trained in how to properly prepare a waste for transportation in accordance with DOT regulations? If not, do you know that you can be held personally liable for any incidents? Fortunately EPA has provided an alternative for companies generating hazardous wastes who do not have employees properly trained to sign manifests.
With the changes made to the national hazardous waste manifest in 2006, EPA allowed the offeror of the waste to sign for the generator. By definition, the offeror is any person who performs or is responsible for performing any pre-transportation function required by the hazardous materials regulations or who tenders or makes the hazardous material available to a carrier for transportation in commerce (49 CFR 171.8). In its interpretations of the term, DOT has permitted any person who actually performs the steps required to prepare hazardous materials (including hazardous wastes) for transportation to certify to these facts on line 15 of the manifest. If contractors or hazardous waste transporters prepare your hazardous wastes for shipment by packaging the wastes, filling out the forms, labeling the containers, and otherwise meeting DOT criteria as the offeror, those contractors or transporters may sign the manifest as a generator's agent provided they have your permission.
If you have received hazardous waste training but these pre-shipment activities do not sound familiar, check with your training provider to determine if the training sessions cover the requirements for hazardous materials (hazmat) employees as defined in the DOT Hazardous Materials Regulations at 49 CFR 172 Subpart H. These regulations specify training requirements for general awareness/familiarization, function-specific training, and safety training. Successful completion of this training will enable employees offering hazardous waste in transportation to know they have properly classified, described, packaged, marked, and labeled their hazardous waste and enable them to meaningfully certify that their waste shipment is in proper condition for transportation. The training must be received within 90 days of employment for new hazmat employees and must be repeated every 3 years. This training is in addition to the training required by 40 CFR 265.34 for small quantity generators or 40 CFR 265.16 for large quantity generators, which includes instruction on procedures relevant to waste handling, accumulation, and emergency response.
In summary, even with changes to the national hazardous waste manifest, generators of hazardous waste must ensure that the person signing the manifest has received appropriate DOT hazmat training (in addition to the EPA training they must receive for working with hazardous waste and responding to emergencies). Fortunately, however, that person does not have to be a generator employee-a contractor or transporter with the training can prepare the wastes and then certify the manifest.
Kathy McKinney-Tovar is an STC Senior Analyst located in Vallejo, CA and has over 20 years experience in the consulting industry assisting businesses with environmental compliance, regulatory issues, and due diligence. She has extensive project management experience and technical knowledge across a wide range of environmental programs. Kathy has performed multi-media environmental compliance audits throughout the U.S. at aerospace and cogeneration facilities, hazardous waste TSDFs, oil terminals, semiconductor, electronics, pharmaceutical, explosives, chemical and paint manufacturing facilities and office buildings, and has assisted numerous industrial clients in the development of customized environmental auditing protocols and training programs.
For more information about this article, contact Kathy at KMcKinney-Tovar@stcenv.com or (707) 534-3248.
