The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) criminal enforcement program was not established until 1982. In 1988, recognizing the growing need to combat environmental crime, congress granted the EPA full law enforcement authority, and greatly expanded the program with the enactment of the 1990 Pollution Prosecution Act. So what does this mean to you?

If a business is found to be in violation of the EPA’s regulations it could cost them thousands of dollars in fines. Whether you are a small business, or a multi-million dollar corporation you are responsible for ensuring your vendors and employees are properly disposing of, and tracking, hazardous waste. Hazardous material must be shipped, using qualified transporters, to permitted Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities (TSDFs) on hazardous waste manifests. In addition, annual or biannual regulatory recordkeeping and reporting requirements must be completed.

If the waste is leaving your site it is your company’s responsibility to track, and have available, all documentation pertaining to the shipment and disposal of waste. This is true even if you have a vendor handling the hazardous waste shipment. At the end of the day, your business is liable if waste does not end up at a qualified TSDF facility, so be sure you have the records you need.

As a service provider who is responsible for handling, and disposing of, hazardous waste (batteries, oil, fuel, refrigerant, etc); we take every precaution to ensure we are operating in accordance with the EPA’s policies and guidelines. We have made it our business to ensure the transfer of waste is easily traceable, and reportable, through a centralized web-based system. We have accomplished this by adding an environmental compliance feature to EEC Infrastructure Manager  (EEC IM), our web-based asset manager.  All EEC service clients have access to this system.

EEC Infrastructure Manager (EEC IM) has been expanded to include a chain of custody waste tracking management system, for all waste types. Through EEC IM, our clients have the ability to view, and print, all waste removed from their site anytime - day or evening. Some of the detailed information that Infrastructure Manager provides is listed below:

• Warehouse accumulation point, EEC IM updates the location of the waste throughout the transfer and shipping process.
• Manifest/shipping documentation
• EEC IM updates EPA number and/or State ID number.
• Final destination location, the Certificate of Disposal is scanned into the system, as are all shipping documents and waste manifest.
• Quarterly reports, upon request, clients can receive either printed hard or electronic CD copies of waste reports in one package.

If you have any questions regarding this new feature in EEC Infrastructure Manager, please feel free to contact our Environmental Safety and Compliance Manager, Doug Markey at dmarkey@eecnet.com or (508) 229-1452.