Exception Reports are intended to address the situation in which the generator does not receive timely confirmation that their hazardous or PCB wastes, tracked with a manifest, arrived at the facility designated by the generator to receive its waste. Exception Reports are required in the Federal regulations at § 262.42 (Hazardous Waste) and § 761.217 (PCBs).

In the final rule Integrating e-Manifest with Exports and Other Manifest-Related Reports, PCB Manifest Amendments, and Technical Corrections (July 2024) EPA finalized revisions to allow LQGs and SQGs to submit electronic exception reporting in e-Manifest for both paper and electronic manifests. Beginning on December 1, 2025, LQGs and SQGs must comply with the electronic reporting requirements discussed below, including the requirement that LQGs and SQGs must submit Exception Reports directly in EPA's e-Manifest system. Beginning December 1, 2025, LQGs and SQGs will no longer have the option to supply written, paper Exception Reports to the EPA Regional Administrators or authorized States via postal mail.

The final rule removes the existing requirement that LQGs must sign the cover letter of an Exception Report “by hand”. A separate cover letter is no longer necessary since an explanation of the efforts taken to locate the hazardous waste and the results of those efforts will be prepared directly in EPA's e-Manifest system as part of the electronic Exception Report.

The final rule also clarifies that VSQGs that meet the conditions under § 262.232(a) for managing hazardous waste from an episodic event may continue to submit the Exception Reports directly to EPA or the States in lieu of submitting them via the e-Manifest system.

Retention of electronic Exception Reports in the e-Manifest system satisfy any requirement for a generator to keep or retain a copy of an Exception Report; and generators may not be held liable for the inability to produce an Exception Report through the e-Manifest system for inspection if the report is inaccessible due to the system being down and thus a denial of services occurs.

For shipments accompanied by paper manifests, LQGs and SQGs must prepare the Exception Reports according to § 262.42(a)(2) and (b), respectively, by uploading an image file of their initial copy of the manifest (Page 4 of the new manifest form) for which the generator does not have confirmation of delivery and entering select information from the manifest. LQGs must also provide an explanation in the e-Manifest system describing the efforts the LQG has taken to locate the waste shipment and the results of those efforts. SQGs only need to upload an image file of their initial copy of the manifest along with a statement that the return copy was not received.

For fully electronic and hybrid manifests, the generator will be able to use the information already in the e-Manifest system to fill out the electronic Exception Report. EPA will provide access to Exception Reports to EPA and State personnel through the e-Manifest system.

Only generators with an EPA ID number and a registered user for access to e-Manifest will be able to submit an Exception Report electronically. Federally, EPA only requires LQGs and SQGs to submit Exception Reports, and these generators are already required to have an EPA ID number and, with this final rule, are now required to have a registered user. To submit electronic Exception Reports, generators will need a registered user with at least Certifier level permissions in the e-Manifest module (a permission level that currently requires identity proofing and an electronic signature agreement).

There is a uniform exception reporting timeframe for all generators, regardless of their status ( i.e., LQG, SQG). The finalized revisions under §§ 262.42(a)(1) and 761.217(a)(1) for LQG and PCB generators, respectively, state that the generator must contact the transporter and/or the owner or operator of the designated facility within 45 days to determine the status of the hazardous waste after not receiving a final copy of the manifest. This is an additional 10 days beyond the proposed 35-day requirement. SQGs are not subject to this requirement in the existing regulations. The final 45/60-day timeframes for LQGs and PCB generators provide additional time for the receiving facility to submit final copies of the manifest to the e-Manifest system and for the EPA paper processing center to enter the paper manifest, if necessary, in order for the generator to receive its final copy. The 45/60-day timeframes also serve to simplify the exception reporting regulations for generators: all generators must submit an Exception Report after 60 days.