Superfund Reportable Quantities (RQs)

Underthe Superfund law, CERCLA (see CERCLA Overview), Congress established an initial reportable quantity or RQ of one pound for Superfundhazardous substances. Congress also required EPA to issue regulations toadjust these initial RQs to more accurately reflect their potential tothreaten public health and welfare and the environment. To date, EPA hasestablished or proposed adjustments to the RQs for all of the roughly 800Superfund substances.

RQs are adjusted to one of five levels: 1, 10, 100, 1,000, or 5,000pounds. EPA bases adjustments to the RQs on the intrinsic characteristicsof each hazardous substance, such as the aquatic toxicity, acute and chronictoxicity, ignitability, reactivity, and potential carcinogenicity. An RQvalue is established for each of these characteristics of a hazardous substance,with the most stringent RQ value (i.e., the lowest quantity) becoming thefinal RQ or reporting trigger for that hazardous substance.

The documents below are in PDF format. For information on PDFs, please click on the "About PDF" icon.

Reportable Quantities (RQs) for CERCLA Section 102(a) Hazardous Substances
40 CFR 302.4 (July 1, 2001) [PDF 1.2M, 67 pages]

EPCRA Reportable Quantities

Under the Emergency Planning andCommunity Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Congress designated 360 extremely hazardous substances that require the reporting of releases to state and local authorities. The RQs for the extremelyhazardous substances are based on the substance's acute lethal toxicity.

Reportable Quantities (RQs) for EPCRA Section 302(a)(2) Extremely Hazardous Substances
40 CFR 355.5 (July 1, 2001) [PDF 137K, 12 pages]