               Substantive Changes to Regulatory Impact Analysis
                          In Response to OMB Comments
                                March 30, 2016
                                       

OMB Comment #1

Chapter 2: If possible, suggest adding a table with the annual tonnage or ton-miles of various classes of hazardous waste shipped per year (e.g. how many tons of radioactive waste, how many tons of petrochemical waste, etc).

Response:

Added the following footnote to p. 2-10 (immediately before Exhibit 2-5):

      This RIA did not identify any publicly-available, comprehensive data separating hazardous waste shipments by broad waste type category (e.g., radioactive waste vs. petrochemical waste vs. solvents, etc.). However, the 2011 RCRA Biennial Report provides identifying information on all generated hazardous waste, though it does not provide this information for the subset of this waste that is shipped. The 2011 RCRA Biennial report identifies a total of approximately 34 million tons of hazardous waste generated, of which approximately 20 million tons are characteristic hazardous wastes (i.e., ignitable, corrosive, reactive, toxic, or multiple such characteristics), approximately 4 million tons are listed hazardous wastes (i.e., non-specific source wastes such as solvents and other byproducts from manufacturing and industrial processes, source-specific wastes from petroleum refining, pesticide manufacturing, and other industries, and discarded commercial chemical products), and approximately another 10 million tons of generated hazardous waste with both characteristic and listed waste properties. The most common types of generated hazardous waste per the 2011 Biennial Report were: 1) characteristic hazardous wastes with corrosive and other characteristics, approximately 8 million tons; 2) characteristic hazardous wastes with organic constituents (waste codes D018 through D043) and other characteristics, approximately 8 million tons; 3) source-specific listed hazardous wastes with at least one characteristic, approximately 8 million tons, and characteristic hazardous wastes with organic constituents (waste codes D018 through D043) with at least one additional listed waste code, approximately 9 million tons. Note that these figures are not additive, as the first two categories above could include some of the same tons of waste. For additional information, see Exhibits 1.7 and 1.8 of the 2011 RCRA Biennial Report.


OMB Comment #2

Page 2-21, section 2.3. This section presents the carriers impacted by the rule but includes only trucking firms. If possible, suggest adding annual tonnage moved by truck, rail and barge to substantiate the claim that trucking is the dominant mode for transporting hazardous waste and hence inclusion of only that mode in the analysis is appropriate.

Response:

Added the following footnote to p. 2-22 (first paragraph of Section 2.1.3 Transporters):

      Per the Supporting Statement for Information Collection Request (ICR) Number 801.20 Requirements for Generators, Transporters, and Waste Management Facilities under the RCRA Hazardous Waste Manifest System, April 30, 2015, three percent of manifests accompany water shipments (i.e., shipments by barge) and six percent of manifests accompany rail shipments (i.e., shipments by train). This represents a small proportion (less than ten percent) of the overall universe of hazardous waste shipments requiring manifests. Additionally, as discussed in Chapter 5, this RIA uses the number of hazardous waste hauling trucks to estimate CROMERR compliance costs to industry; because there are likely to be considerably fewer rail and barge operators that must complete CROMERR registration relative to the number of truck drivers hauling hazardous waste shipments (both drivers and companies), additional CROMERR-related costs associated with hazardous waste shipments by truck and rail are expected to be minimal and are not estimated in this RIA. Note that this RIA estimates manifest costs associated with shipments of hazardous waste by barge and rail, including special requirements that apply only to these shipments  -  see Chapters 4 and 5 for additional detail.


OMB Comment #3

Page 5-42, section 5.9. This section lists stakeholders who might find use in accessing this data. PHMSA may be able to use this data to inform transportation incident risk so we recommend   adding "other Federal Agencies" to the list of stakeholders.

Response:

Revised the text as follows:

   EPA expects that electronic manifests will enhance many stakeholders' abilities to track and extract data on waste shipments by storing and distributing this data in a central, accessible location. EPA has identified six seven stakeholder groups that may benefit from better access to manifest shipping data:

 Members of industry that use the manifest for tracking waste shipments;
 Federal and state government RCRA enforcement officials;
 Emergency responders;
 Foreign governments;
 Research institutions; and
 Communities near RCRA-regulated facilities; and
 Other federal agencies.


