WASHINGTON—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a final rule making changes to its Hazardous Waste Import and Export regulations.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy signed the rule Oct. 28, and it will be published soon in the Federal Register, the agency said in a summary on its website.
The rule becomes effective Dec. 31, and the EPA will phase in implementation to allow waste shippers to achieve compliance, the agency said.
The rule brings U.S. regulations on hazardous waste transport in line with those established by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the EPA said. Changes to the regulations streamline the hazardous waste export and import process, implement mandatory electronic reporting for international shipments and provide for electronic linking of export information, it said.
“The final rule will provide greater protection to human health and the environment by providing for increased transparency, data sharing and more efficient compliance monitoring for international shipments,” the agency said.
Among the provisions of the new rule are:
• Improved export and import shipment tracking;
• One consolidated and streamlined set of requirements applying to all imports and exports;
• Mandatory electronic reporting to the EPA; and
• Linking the consent to export with the electronic export information submitted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The EPA's summary of the final rule can be found here.