When TRI is not enough, try state hazardous waste manifests

Hazardous waste manifests provide detailed tracking of toxic materials that can supplement federal TRI data, with about half of U.S. states offering computerized access to these records for investigative journalism purposes. Reporters can use manifest data to identify illegal dumping, verify environmental compliance, and enhance local accountability in environmental stories.

When it comes to environmental issues, particularly the treatment and disposal of hazardous material, Uplink often touts the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory. TRI is a database with untold uses, but it contains generalized data and provides little detail with regard to the fate of hazardous materials.

TRI records scarcely go beyond "Off-site Transfer" when describing the fate of the millions of tons of hazardous materials that were stored, treated and/or shipped offsite by the thousands of large-quantity waste generators in the United States.

TRI serves as excellent summary material and a good initial source for information concerning manufacturers and their toxic chemical discharges. The challenge for computer-assisted reporters is to find new databases on local or state levels and use them to develop more detailed applications in the environmental arena to supplement the federal perspective. At Electronic Public Information Consultants (EPIC), we tap into data that helps make this possible: state hazardous waste manifests.

Hazardous waste manifests are one of the many consequences of the 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. In theory, RCRA is supposed to help environmental enforcement agencies track every ounce of hazardous material "from cradle to grave." In short, the act compels manufacturers that create and ship hazardous materials to complete Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest forms every time waste leaves their facilities.

Despite the name, there is no such thing as a standardized UHWM form. Some manufacturers actually generate their own forms. However, RCRA does specify reporting requirements. The manifest must not only describe hazardous material in superb detail, but also must specify who is transporting the material, where it is going (even if out of state), when the material is shipped, and just about anything else you would want to know about the material's transport, delivery and disposal.

Using hazardous waste manifests, reporters can track the transport of hazardous materials through their state. In all likelihood, they can also identify the source and destination of the most menacing material, cross-reference the data with TRI and state enforcement data to determine if discharge figures are consistent, and even identify illegal transport activities. Needless to say, reporters can thereby add a tremendous amount of detail to TRI's "Off-site Transfer" records.

The good news for computer-assisted reporters is that about half the states in the United States are using computers to compile UHWMs.

They are: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. As of last year, Alabama, West Virginia, and Maine were planning to automate.

The other states, as you might imagine, are complaining about volume problems and their relative inability to handle the information. Ohio, for example, supplements its current system (or lack thereof) by purchasing manifest databases from bordering states - Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Indiana all of which have automated systems. You can take a similar approach if your state is not using computers. At this point, it is difficult to be specific about fees for data. EPIC paid $86 for Texas manifests, Illinois manifests are free of charge, and New Jersey charges $4.50 per second of CPU time with a $500 maximum fee.

Requesting data should not be difficult. A data processor at the Department of Natural Resources in New Jersey boasted that he fills hundreds of requests for manifest databases each month (don't worry, he couldn't recall doing much work for journalists). Whether he was exaggerating or not, he did make it clear that obtaining data was no problem.

State agencies store manifests anywhere from three years to indefinitely. Unfortunately, every state will have a different agency responsible for compiling the manifest data, and each will have different policies concerning format and maintenance.

One way to get started would be to call the agency in your state responsible for enforcing environmental permits (e.g. Department of Natural Resources, state Environmental Protection Agency, or Department of Ecology). If that fails, call your state Department of Transportation. EPIC has started to compile as many of these hazardous waste databases as possible. Feel free to call us.

For more information regarding hazardous waste manifests, there is an excellent, free resource manual called "A State Guide to the Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest" published by the National Governors Association (444 North Capitol Street, Washington, D.C., 20001-1572). In addition to describing the manifest process in detail, the guide identifies appropriate agencies and contacts in every state.