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A report of a hazardous substance release or oil spill takes only a few minutes. To report a release or spill, contact the federal government's centralized reporting center, the National Response Center (NRC), at 1-800-424-8802. The NRC is staffed 24 hours a day by U.S. Coast Guard personnel, who will ask you to provide as much information about the incident as possible, including:
| Your name, location, organization, and telephone number |
| Name and address of the party responsible for the incident |
| Date and time of the incident |
| Location of the incident |
| Source and cause of the release or spill |
| Types of material(s) released or spilled |
| Quantity of materials released or spilled |
| Medium (e.g. land, water) affected by release or spill |
| Danger or threat posed by the release or spill |
| Number and types of injuries or fatalities (if any) |
| Weather conditions at the incident location |
| Name of the carrier or vessel, the railcar/truck number, or other indentifying information |
| Whether an evacuation has occurred |
| Other agencies notified or about to be notified |
| Any other information that may help emergency personnel respond to the incident |
If reporting directly to the NRC is not possible, reports also can be made to the EPA Regional office or the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Office in the area where the incident occurred. In general, EPA should be contacted if the incident involves a release to inland areas or inland waters, and the U.S. Coast Guard should be contacted for releases to coastal waters, the Great Lakes, ports and harbors, or the Mississippi River. The EPA or U.S. Coast Guard will relay release and spill reports to the NRC promptly.
A report of a release of an extremely hazardous substance should be made to the state emergency response commission (SERC) or the local emergency planning committee (LEPC) established for the location where the incident occurred. To identify the appropriate SERC and LEPC, contact the EPCRA Hotline at 1-800-535-0202.
All reports of hazardous substance releases and oil spills made to the federal government are maintained by the National Response Center. The NRC records and maintains all reports in a computer database called the Emergency Response Notification System, which is available to the public. The NRC is staffed 24 hours a day by U.S. Coast Guard personnel. The NRC relays the release information to an EPA or U.S. Coast Guard On-Scene Coordinator (OSC), depending on the location of the incident. In every area of the country, OSCs are on-call and ready to respond to a an oil or hazardous substance release at any time of the day. After receiving a report of a release, the federal OSC evaluates the situation and, if the OSC decides that a federal emergency response action is necessary, the National Response System is activated.
Under the Superfund law, Congress established an initial reportable quantity or RQ of one pound for Superfund hazardous substances. Congress also required EPA to issue
regulations to adjust these initial RQs to more accurately reflect their potential to threaten public health and welfare and the environment. To date, EPA has established or proposed adjustments to the RQs for all of the roughly 800 Superfund substances.
RQs are adjusted to one of five levels: 1, 10, 100, 1,000, or 5,000 pounds. EPA bases adjustments to the RQs on the intrinsic characteristics of each hazardous substance, such as the aquatic toxicity, acute and chronic toxicity, ignitability, reactivity, and potential carcinogenicity. An RQ value is established for each of these characteristics of a hazardous substance, with the most stringent RQ value (i.e., the lowest quantity) becoming the final RQ or reporting trigger for that hazardous substance.
Under the Emergency Planning and Community 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 extremely hazardous substances are based on the substance's acute lethal toxicity.
This page was updated on August 01, 2004