Hazardous waste licensing and renewal

What is a waste?

A waste is a material that you no longer need, want or use; it is something that is unusable or is intended to be discarded, such as spent solvent.

A waste is not something that you can and will use, such as leftover paint that will be used on another project.

What is a hazardous waste?

A waste is either non-hazardous — and exempt from hazardous waste regulations — or hazardous for one of the following reasons:

• It is listed (appears on one of four lists in the Minnesota Hazardous Waste Rules)
• It is characteristic (displays one or more of six hazardous characteristics)
• It contains more than 50 parts per million (ppm) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

For more information, see examples of hazardous and special wastes.

Evaluating your waste

Minnesota Hazardous Waste Rules require that anyone who produces or manages a waste must carefully examine a waste's characteristics in order to determine whether or not it is hazardous.

To determine if your business produces hazardous waste:

1. Gather information about the wastes your business produces. Talk to purchasing, production and maintenance personnel, tour production and non-production areas and inspect storage areas and dumpsters. Don't forget to include sewered and recycled wastes.
2. Evaluate the wastes (PDF). The evaluation process will include checking to see if any of the wastes are exempt from the hazardous waste rules, determining if any of the wastes are listed in the hazardous waste rules, and determining if any of the wastes display any of the characteristics of hazardous waste. You may need to have the waste tested.
3. Obtain a hazardous waste license if your business generates hazardous waste.

Update and manage your hazardous waste license using the Hennepin County Hazardous Waste Portal.

Use the portal to:

• Submit annual reports electronically
• Get real-time access to license information for all operations under your control
• Add wastes to a license and provide supporting documents, such as test results
• Make wastes inactive if they are no longer generated
• Update site contact and mailing address information
• Print copies of licensing documents, including reports, licenses and invoices

Getting access to the portal

The portal was launched in 2013 and all existing hazardous waste generators that are required to complete the annual licensing process have a portal administrator associated with their operation. If you are not yet a portal user and need to be added, you should reach out to the portal administrator for your operation to be added as a user. If you don’t know who the portal administrator is for your operation or the portal administrator is no longer with the operation, send an email to hwgsupport@hennepin.us to request assistance or call 612-348-3777 and ask for the inspector on call.

Instructions for using the hazardous waste portal

Download instructions for using the hazardous waste portal (PDF).

The instructions will cover the bulleted points, below:

• Email settings
• Registration
• Login

Please be aware that the PIN for an operation is only valid for initial registration in the portal. If your operation is already registered, please work with your portal administrator to get added as a portal user or contact 612-348-3777 and ask for the inspector on call, for assistance.

More than 50% of minimal generator operations are also registered in the hazardous waste portal. If you are a minimal generator seeking to gain access to the hazardous waste portal, check the backside of your generator license for your operation’s PIN and 16-digit Operation ID, which are both necessary for initial registration. The first person to register becomes the operation’s portal administrator.

Once you have successfully registered and logged into the hazardous waste portal, there are additional instructions within the portal that describe the sections below:

• Home License: view and print management plan summary, invoice or license; update your license
• Contact: edit contact persons associated with your company
• Waste: add wastes to a license
• Profile: add, edit or delete portal users (only the operation’s portal administrator will have access to the profile manager)
• My profile: add more operations to your existing account

Hennepin County's hazardous waste licensing forms are designed to help new or unlicensed generators determine if their business needs a hazardous waste license, assess their hazardous waste management, become compliant with hazardous waste regulations and apply for a license, all without requiring an inspection.

Obtaining a hazardous waste license is a three-step process. Learn more about the steps and access the hazardous waste licensing forms.

If your business is moving within Hennepin County, complete the moves form.

If your business is closing, is moving to a location outside of Hennepin County, or is no longer generating hazardous waste, complete the closure form.

If your business is changing ownership, complete the change of ownership form.

Hazardous waste staff will review your information and may contact you if they have any questions or require additional information.

Annual licensing schedule

The annual licensing schedule applies to VSQGs, SQGs and LQGs. To be eligible to receive a Hennepin County hazardous waste generator license that is effective on May 1, you must:

1. Submit your annual hazardous waste management plan summary (MPS) via the portal
2. Pay your license fee

Once the license has been created, an email will be sent to the portal administrator from hwgsupport@hennepin.us. The email will include instructions for logging into the portal and printing the license.

Important licensing dates

The license period runs from May 1 of the license year through April 30 of the following year.

Late October or early November

Portal administrators are sent an email from hwgsupport@hennepin.us with instructions to log into the portal, review/update and electronically submit their annual license renewal application (hazardous waste management plan summary or MPS).

December 15

Hazardous waste management plan summaries (MPS) are due.

Late February

Invoices are created. Once an invoice is created, the invoice and invoice payment status can be viewed in the portal. A digital PDF copy of the invoice will be emailed to the billing contact for your operation. The invoice will contain additional information that helps ensure that payments get posted promptly and to the correct customer account.

March 31

Hazardous waste license payments are due.

Beginning in mid-April

Generator licenses are created for eligible generators. Once created, the portal administrator will be notified via email that their license can be printed from the hazardous waste portal. To become eligible to receive a generator license, both the MPS and license payment must have been received. Payments require 14 days to clear the bank before the eligibility begins. The following is a guide to when licenses will be available based on when your payment is posted:

Payment posted on or before March 31:

License created mid-April

Payment posted April 1 to 16:

License created first working day in May

Payment posted April 17 to May 16:

License created first working day in June

Payment posted after May 16:

Licenses continue to be created for eligible generators on the first working day of each subsequent month.

License fees

License fees are based on your generator size and the amount of waste generated the previous calendar year.

All hazardous waste generators must pay the base fee designated for their generator size. Large quantity generators (LQGs) and small quantity generators (SQGs) also must pay applicable volume fees. Very small quantity generators (VSQGs) and minimal generators do not pay additional volume fees.

If you have questions about your hazardous waste management plan summary, call 612-348-3777 and ask for the inspector on call.

Base fee (applies to all generators)

• Minimal generator, $0
• VSQG (less than or equal to 100 lbs/year), $72
• VSQG (101 - 1,000 lbs/year), $287
• VSQG (greater than 1,000 lbs/year), $429
• SQG (less than or equal to 5,000 lbs/yr), $572
• SQG (greater than 5,000 lbs/yr), $858
• LQG, $2,151

Volume fee (applies to all billable hazardous wastes generated by SQGs and LQGs)

• Standard rate: $0.00717 per pound
  Applies to hazardous waste that is: accumulated on site, shipped off-site using a manifest, managed under a tolling agreement and hazardous waste that is sewered without treatment.

• Reduced rate: $0.000717 per pound
  Applies to feedstocks and byproducts managed under an approved feedstock or byproduct management plan and sewered hazardous wastes that have been excluded from generator size determination pursuant to Minn. Rule 7045.0305 subp. 2.

All wastes reported in gallons will be converted to pounds using the factor 1 gallon = 10 pounds.

Universal wastes, special wastes, used oil, oil filters and absorbents with oil are not included in determining generator size or in determining volume fees.

Reducing your hazardous waste fees

Businesses can reduce hazardous waste fees by reducing the amount of hazardous waste they produce. Many businesses have been able to reduce their license fees by implementing changes in their processes, equipment or products used. For more information on how to do this and, for technical assistance, see pollution prevention and waste reduction programs.

Viewing your invoice

When an invoice is first created, an email will be sent to the ‘Billing Contact’ with the invoice as a PDF attachment. Another way to view your official invoice is by logging into the online payment system. A third way to view your invoice is by logging into the hazardous waste customer portal, however, the customer portal invoice is not considered the official invoice and will appear differently than the online payment system version.

Invoice payment status

Real-time payment status can be confirmed within the online payment system. The hazardous waste customer portal will also display the payment status, but the payment won’t be reflected until the day following your payment posting to the system. Electronic payments will generally post to the online payment system immediately while check payments can take a week or even longer to show up as being received. To see the most current payment status for an invoice, billing contacts and portal administrators should log into the online payment system.

Paying your licensing fees online

Hazardous waste generator license invoices will be distributed by email (as a PDF) to each operation’s ‘Billing Contact’ in late February. Payments are due March 31st. Invoices for new generator operations will be distributed at different times throughout the year with payments due 30 days after issuance. While generators still have the option to pay by check, an online payment system allows electronic payments (e.g. credit card, debit card, eCheck).

If you already received a PDF copy of your invoice from APEX@hennepin.us, or if you received a past-due payment notification from hwgsupport@hennepin.us, you are already pre-registered in Hennepin County’s secure online payment system.

If you just changed or are about to change the ‘Billing Contact’ or ‘Portal Administrator’ to someone new, please review the instructions in the following link regarding pre-registration.

View a PDF of these license payment instructions that includes screenshots.