Preface

The University of Idaho complies with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Idaho Hazardous Waste Management Act, and other federal and state laws, rules and regulations which pertain to inventory, use and disposal of hazardous materials and hazardous wastes.

Failure to comply with these laws, rules and regulations is a violation of law and can subject the University and/or responsible administrators to civil or criminal penalties.  This manual specifies the procedures employees are expected to follow when they store, use and/or dispose of hazardous materials and hazardous wastes, in order to ensure compliance with laws, rules and regulations.

The nature of a university and its myriad of activities require that compliance with environmental requirements be a distributed responsibility.  University employees are responsible for knowing and complying with these procedures.  Administrators are expected to ensure that their employees are familiar with University procedures, to make copies of this manual available, and to provide opportunity for employees to attend workshops in the management of hazardous wastes and hazardous materials which are regularly presented by Environmental Health and Safety.

Distributed responsibility requires distributed accountability.  It is, therefore, the policy of the University of Idaho that, in the event a failure to comply with University of Idaho procedures results in violations of federal or state laws, rules or regulations, employees whose actions gave rise to the violation may be subject to disciplinary action.

It is, furthermore, the policy of the University of Idaho that, in the event that violations of state or federal laws, rules or regulations lead to the payment of monetary penalties by the University, and when such failure involves non-compliance with procedures described in this manual, amounts paid as penalties may be assessed against the operating budgets of departments whose employees’ activities causes the violation.