If a hazardous waste shipment leaves your site and the signed manifest never comes back, federal law requires you to file a hazardous waste Exception Report. Large quantity generators must investigate by day 45 and file by day 60. Small quantity generators file within 60 days. As of December 1, 2025, the report goes through EPA’s e-Manifest system rather than by mail.
What Triggers the Report
Every hazardous waste shipment travels with a Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest. When the receiving facility accepts the load, it signs the manifest and returns a copy to the generator. That signed copy closes the tracking loop.
The Exception Report requirement kicks in when the loop stays open. No signed manifest back within the regulatory window means the generator has a legal duty to investigate and, if the paperwork is still missing, to report. The clock starts on the date the initial transporter accepted the waste, not the date you shipped the manifest or the date the receiving facility supposedly accepted the load.
Deadlines by Generator Size
The timeline depends on how much hazardous waste your site generates in a month.
Large Quantity Generators
A large quantity generator produces 1,000 kilograms or more of hazardous waste per month, or more than one kilogram of acutely hazardous waste.1United States Environmental Protection Agency. Categories of Hazardous Waste Generators LQGs face a two-step obligation:
- By day 45 from the date the initial transporter accepted the waste, contact the transporter or the receiving facility and find out what happened to the shipment.
- By day 60 from that same date, if the signed manifest still has not arrived, submit a formal Exception Report.2eCFR. 40 CFR 262.42 – Exception Reporting
The 60-day deadline is firm. The regulation does not provide for extensions. The one carve-out: a generator is not liable for failing to produce an electronic report when the e-Manifest system itself is down and the outage is not the generator’s fault.2eCFR. 40 CFR 262.42 – Exception Reporting
Small Quantity Generators
A small quantity generator produces more than 100 kilograms but less than 1,000 kilograms of hazardous waste per month.1United States Environmental Protection Agency. Categories of Hazardous Waste Generators SQGs have a single deadline: 60 days from the date the initial transporter accepted the waste. The regulation does not build in a separate investigation step, though calling your transporter well before the deadline runs out is sensible practice.2eCFR. 40 CFR 262.42 – Exception Reporting
Very Small Quantity Generators
Facilities generating 100 kilograms or less per month are very small quantity generators and are generally exempt from Exception Report requirements.1United States Environmental Protection Agency. Categories of Hazardous Waste Generators If a VSQG handles an episodic generation event and temporarily operates under SQG rules, SQG exception reporting applies for those shipments.2eCFR. 40 CFR 262.42 – Exception Reporting
What the Report Must Include
Large quantity generators submit two things: a legible copy of the manifest for which no signed confirmation was received, and a cover letter signed by the generator or an authorized representative describing every effort made to locate the waste and the results of those efforts.2eCFR. 40 CFR 262.42 – Exception Reporting The cover letter is where most of the work goes. Document the dates you called the transporter, the names of the people you spoke with, any emails exchanged with the receiving facility, and whether you ultimately located the shipment. If the waste is still missing, say so plainly.
Small quantity generators have a lighter requirement: a legible copy of the manifest with a notation that the generator has not received confirmation of delivery.2eCFR. 40 CFR 262.42 – Exception Reporting No cover letter is required by the federal rule, but adding one doesn’t hurt and may satisfy stricter state formats.
Whatever you submit needs to be accurate. Knowingly omitting material information or making false statements in a RCRA compliance filing is a federal crime carrying fines up to $50,000 per day and up to two years of imprisonment, with both maximums doubled for repeat offenders.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 6928 – Federal Enforcement
Filing Through e-Manifest
Before December 2025, generators typically mailed Exception Reports to the EPA Regional Administrator or the authorized state agency. Starting December 1, 2025, all generators except VSQGs and PCB waste generators must submit Exception Reports electronically through EPA’s e-Manifest system.4United States Environmental Protection Agency. Frequent Questions About e-Manifest
To file electronically, you need three things in place:
- An EPA ID number, the twelve-character alphanumeric identifier assigned to every hazardous waste site.
- A free RCRAInfo account registered through EPA’s portal, with access to your EPA ID approved by state regulators or an existing site manager.
- A user with at least Certifier-level permissions in the e-Manifest module. Site Manager permissions include Certifier access and also let you manage permissions for others in the organization.
New users with Site Manager or Certifier roles must complete an Electronic Signature Agreement during registration.4United States Environmental Protection Agency. Frequent Questions About e-Manifest Set this up before you need it. Running through registration while a 60-day deadline closes in is a bad place to be.
Penalties for Missing the Deadline
Failing to file an Exception Report, or filing late, exposes a generator to civil penalties under RCRA. The base statutory maximum is $25,000 per day of violation, with each day counting separately.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 6928 – Federal Enforcement After inflation adjustment, the current maximum for general Subtitle C violations assessed on or after January 6, 2025, is $93,058 per day.5eCFR. 40 CFR 19.4 – Statutory Civil Monetary Penalties, as Adjusted for Inflation, and Tables EPA does pursue exception reporting failures, especially where a pattern suggests the generator is not tracking shipments seriously.
Criminal penalties are reserved for intentional misconduct. Knowingly making a false statement in an Exception Report or any RCRA compliance document carries fines up to $50,000 per day and up to two years of imprisonment. A second offense doubles both.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 6928 – Federal Enforcement
Recordkeeping After You File
Keep a copy of each Exception Report for at least three years from the report’s due date, not from the date you actually filed it.6eCFR. 40 CFR 262.40 – Recordkeeping Hold onto the supporting material too: the manifest copy, the cover letter, and the correspondence from your investigation.
The three-year period extends automatically during any unresolved enforcement action involving the regulated activity, and whenever the EPA Administrator requests extended retention.6eCFR. 40 CFR 262.40 – Recordkeeping If your facility is under investigation, do not discard exception reporting records regardless of how many years have passed. Facilities filing through e-Manifest can also satisfy retention by accessing their official records directly in the system.
Exception Report vs. Discrepancy Report
These two reports look similar and get confused. They are not the same. An Exception Report is filed by the generator when the signed manifest never comes back. A Discrepancy Report is filed by the receiving facility when what arrives does not match what the manifest says was shipped, whether by quantity, type, rejection, or excessive container residue.7eCFR. 40 CFR 264.72 – Manifest Discrepancies If your shipment was rejected on arrival, both reports may end up in play for the same load.
State Rules May Require More
States with authorized RCRA programs can impose their own additional requirements. Some have historically maintained tighter timelines or more detailed reporting formats than the federal baseline. Before you rely on the 45- and 60-day federal deadlines alone, confirm with your state environmental agency that no stricter rule applies to your shipment.