On June 26, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent out a message to congratulate their team on the creation and launch of their e-Manifest Program five years ago in June 2018.
Chenega IT Enterprise Services (CITES) started working with the EPA as a Paper Processing Center five years ago. The team started on this contract by processing the paper documents that were still being used. They worked diligently on completing the paper manifests while the EPA transitioned to electronic records. The EPA and CITES then went fully electronic and began using the Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) for all of the document processing.
“For many years, we used a six-copy paper manifest form, but after much research and engagement with Congress, states, tribes, and industry, we launched a completely electronic-based system five years ago. That’s substantial because, in an average month, as a country, we transport about 97,000 shipments of hazardous waste across the nation. In an average year, EPA receives about 1.8 million hazardous waste manifests. If you were to print those out, one year’s total manifests would stack up taller than the Washington Monument!” stated the EPA.
There have been numerous benefits from transitioning from hard copies to electric copies. Including a cost savings for the hazardous waste industry, improved information timelines on waste shipments, rapid notification on discrepancies and other problems, a single hub for one-stop reporting for states and the public, and nationwide real-time access for EPA and state regulators (before e-Manifest, only some states collected manifest data and no regulator had nationwide records).
You can read more about the CITES team and the EPA contract here.