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State Innovation Grants

EPA 2005-2006 State Innovation Grants Competition Pre-Proposals

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
Waste and Hazardous Materials Division

Pre-Proposal Project Summary Page

Project Title:
Manifest Digital Archive System
Name of State Agency:
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
Waste and Hazardous Materials Division
Name of Project Contact:
Arthur Ostaszewski
Hazardous Waste Technical Support Unit
Hazardous Waste Section
Waste and Hazardous Materials Division
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
P.O. Box 30241
Lansing , MI 48909-7741
517-335-1119
ostaszea@michigan.gov

Project executed in cooperation with another Federal Program:
Not as submitted, though we are open to cooperation as part of a full proposal submittal.

Project has regulatory flexibility?
Not Applicable

State Administrator or Senior Deputy endorsement:
We have received written support for this submittal from Deputy Director Jim Sygo to proceed with this project.

Pre-Proposal Project Narrative

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Waste and Hazardous Materials Division (WHMD), would like consideration to proceed in developing a model Manifest Digital Archive System for the purposes of manifest retention and information retrieval.

We seek to update our Manifest Program by purchasing a hi-speed scanner for digitizing existing records on hand and to develop procedures to institute digitization of future manifests. This would transition us from a microfiche-based system to a query-able digitized archive. We would incorporate the U.S. EPA’s Agency and Regional reporting needs, as well as our own billing and storage/retrieval requirements.

The most pressing issue concerning the existing procedures is that the microfiche equipment is antiquated and on its “last leg” due to age. Replacement parts are no longer available. The current system is also very labor intensive, and it only stores an image of the record. Should we encounter additional microfiche equipment failures, it would disrupt the entire manifest tracking, storage (record retention), and billing system.

Within 18 months, the WHMD will begin using the Uniform Manifest, a new national form. Scanning our existing records and the new Uniform Manifest will provide recordkeeping capabilities to search records for particular wastes, allow compliance checks on companies, and review various waste management trends.

Having the capability to digitize records could also allow for the processing of manifests for Part 121, Liquid Industrial Wastes, of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, as amended. These are not currently being processed, only stored in a file. Having these records in digital format would allow better compliance tracking and trend analysis of both hazardous and nonhazardous liquid waste.

Future plans for our Manifest Program include participation in the EPA’s Five State Pilot Study for e-manifests. With this grant, we could digitize the existing manifest backlog into digital format, seamlessly transition to the Uniform Manifest format, and thus, provide historic continuity to the eventual migration to an e‑manifest system.

Deliverables for this grant would include performance based metrics (i.e., number of archives scanned throughout) as well as suitability metrics (user surveys) to evaluate project success.

The pre-proposal budget for the MDEQ-WHMD Manifest Digital Archive System is approximately $*** in equipment costs along with in-kind match provided by staff time and additional costs devoted to the project, as outlined below:

Pre-Proposal Budget Summary

State: Michigan Agency: Department of Environmental Quality
Project Title: Manifest Digital Archive System
Timeline: 12 months
[Removed by EPA]

Further Information

The MDEQ-WHMD would like to thank the EPA for consideration of our pre-proposal and would welcome the opportunity to proceed with submitting a full proposal for a Manifest Digital Archive System. If there are any questions, please forward them to Mr. Art Ostaszewski, who can be reached at 517-335-1119 or ostaszea@state.mi.us.


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