California wants to make it easier to transport hazardous waste

from Alejandra Reyes-VelardeCalMatters

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Just as consumers can track a package from a warehouse to their doorstep, California regulators track the movement of hazardous waste, even a short trip away.

The Department of Toxic Substances Control is now considering whether to remove some of those tracking requirements in situations where companies transport hazardous waste on their own property and on some public roads.

The University of California system and major corporations say this change to the so-called manifest rule will make hazardous waste disposal processes safer and more efficient. This could benefit carmaker Tesla, giant agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley, or industrial chemical producers in the Los Angeles Basin.

But environmentalists say state regulators have no good reason to weaken California’s regulations, which are more stringent than the federal ones. They fear the department’s proposal signals regulators’ intent to loosen regulations as a strategy to manage some of the state’s growing waste problems.

“You certainly don’t have to assume that everyone is a bad actor, but you probably also don’t have to assume that nobody is a bad actor,” said Angela Johnson Mesaros, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice.

Where does the waste go?

To track hazardous waste, companies make detailed reports, including what toxic materials are in what containers, where the waste comes from, and where it goes. This manifest protects generators of hazardous waste by helping them demonstrate that they have complied with regulations. If there is an accident on the road, the recordings help fire and other response agencies keep the public safe.

According to the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the rule change will apply to about 235 generators of hazardous waste. This includes the University of California system, which produces waste on every campus, in hospitals, in maintenance operations, and in research.

At UCLA, if researchers have slides with chemicals on them or vials that have been used in experiments, that toxic waste is stored in the labs until it can be collected.

What happens next is expensive and inefficient, said Ken Smith, who directs the University of California’s Environmental Health and Safety System.

Whenever waste moves from collection sites to off-campus disposal sites, someone must write a manifest. Big trucks come to the labs to collect the hazardous waste, no matter how small the load.

“Imagine having to send a big dump truck just to pick up your individual waste container from your kitchen or bathroom. They’re going to charge you a trip every time,” Smith said.

Since 1997, California’s manifest rule has required more information from more waste generators than the federal system. Then a federal rule change exempted other waste generators, including the military, from having to make detailed reports when waste is transported on-site.

c announcement of a proposal to adopt federal exemptions for waste that travels on business property, state regulators wrote that the change would “enhance overall public and environmental safety” because with fewer records to make, large registered haul trucks like those for the UC system can collect waste in less central locations.

“California has the most protective, stringent hazardous waste management requirements in the nation,” department spokeswoman Alyssa Pakidis said in an email. “The express exemption continues our state’s high standards and does not change the obligations of carriers.”

Advocates are looking for answers

If the Department of Toxic Substances Control changes the manifest rule, it’s not just the UC system that would benefit: According to the regulators’ release, “various chemical companies,” the military and other government businesses would be eligible for the proposed exemption.

But the department is sharing little information about exactly which facilities will stop reporting any information or how many miles hazardous waste can travel without being tracked.

In the only public hearing so far on the rule change, regulators made no presentation. Pakidis said the department does not have a list of qualified facilities and generators of hazardous waste are under no obligation to notify the department if they take advantage of the new rule.

“DTSC regularly inspects hazardous waste haulers and generating facilities to ensure they comply with all regulations, including manifesting when required,” she said.

Without details, community advocates and skeptics of the rule say they are left to speculate.

Smith, the UC official, said chemical waste from a research lab at UCLA can travel miles around the campus perimeter, where homes and schools are located. If the rule applies to large agricultural farms, said Johnson Mezaros, an attorney for Earthjustice, hazardous waste could be transported several miles from one side of the property to the other.

“Just because it doesn’t go far doesn’t mean it’s not vulnerable to an accident,” Johnson Mezaros said.

Tesla and Pacific Gas & Electric Company say the exemption will benefit them.

In a letter to state regulators, Tesla said the proposal to reduce the manifest requirements “is critical to providing operational flexibility in dealing with hazardous waste.”

A PG&E spokesman said the change would allow the company to minimize truck traffic and centralize waste storage areas “often to a location that is more appropriate for the surrounding community.”

“This exemption really creates a lot of confusion and therefore a lot of inconsistency,” said Rebecca Overmeyer-Velásquez, an advocate for the Clean Air Coalition for North Whittier and Avocado Heights, at the public hearing in August. “We’re entering this period of just confusion and lawlessness where everyone can decide they don’t have to show the waste they’re transporting.”

Members of her coalition raised questions about whether changing the manifest rule would change operations at Ecobat, California’s only lead battery recycling facility. Regulators were considering an update to Ecobat’s permit, which was expected in July this year after some delay.

An Ecobat spokesman says the rule does not apply to the City of Industry facility. DTSC has not clarified whether Ecobat is one of the 235 facilities that would benefit from a changed manifest rule.

California’s Toxic Waste Problem

The Department of Toxic Substances Control characterized the manifest proposal as a “clarification.” But advocates fear it’s a harbinger of a loosening of hazardous waste laws, one potential strategy to deal with California’s toxic waste problem.

Over the past 25 years, the amount of hazardous waste generated in the state is decreased by more than 40%, although the number of hazardous waste generators has doubled, according to the department. But the flow of waste is changing and the state does not have the capacity to deal with certain types of waste; specifically lithium-ion batteries, which are critical to clean energy plans.

A 2021 state law recognizing the problem and its complexity directed the Department of Toxic Substances Control to reform the way it manages hazardous waste.

Only two landfills can accept the state’s most toxic trash; CalMatters investigation in 2023 found that even two years ago, almost half of it was targeting countries that have weaker environmental protection. DTSC estimates that landfills will reach capacity by 2039.

In March, the DTSC recommended loosening hazardous waste disposal rules for contaminated soil, one of the state’s largest streams of toxic waste. The department removed the recommendation after the Environmental Safety Board — recently created to oversee the department — raised concerns.

The latest draft of the state’s hazardous waste plan has three goals: reduce the amount of waste that is incinerated or goes to landfills, manage waste in a way that protects human health and the environment, and use cradle-to-grave data to help sustainably manage the state’s hazardous waste.

Johnson Mezaros said he believes those recommendations leave room for loosening regulations, including those that protect people from exposure to contaminated soils.

DTSC, for example, plans to review other federal exemptions the state could adopt and assess how harmful the waste is when it is considered hazardous under California law, but not federally.

“There is nothing in this redacted version to suggest that DTSC has backed away from their deregulatory approach, and in fact they continue to speak directly of their willingness to do so,” Johnson Mezaros said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.