| On the Audit Trail: When Do You Use the RQ Designation?
Barbara Jo Ruble, QEP, CPEA, President, Baltimore, MD
In the course of conducting EHS audits, I have reviewed thousands of hazardous waste manifests and one of the most common mistakes I find is the incorrect use of the RQ designation in the shipping name. Sometimes it appears where it should not; often it is missing where it should have been included. Sure, it is a minor mistake, but it can be avoided entirely. Let's see how we can get it right.
The Appendix to 40 CFR 262 provides detailed instructions for completing the Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest. The instructions for Item 9b on the form read "Enter the U.S. DOT Proper Shipping Name, Hazard Class or Division, Identification Number (UN/NA) and Packing Group for each waste as identified in 49 CFR 172. Include technical name(s) and reportable quantity references, if applicable." If the material being shipped is a pure element or compound, determining when to use the RQ designation is easy. The Hazardous Materials Table in 49 CFR 172.101, Appendix A provides two tables of hazardous substances and their reportable quantities. Table 1 is for substances other than radionuclides and Table 2 is for radionuclides. The first column of the table contains the names of the hazardous substances; the second contains the reportable quantities (RQ) in pounds and kilograms. If the quantity of material in a single container or package exceeds the listed reportable quantity, then RQ should be included in the shipping name.
The problem is that wastes are rarely pure; they are usually mixtures of materials with different properties and RQs.
49 CFR 172.203(c) tells us that (except for radioactive materials) if the proper shipping name for a hazardous substance does not identify the hazardous substance by name (e.g. Waste Flammable Liquid, Toxic, Corrosive, n.o.s.) then the name of the hazardous substance must be entered in parentheses, or if the material contains two or more hazardous substances, then at least the two hazardous substances with the lowest reportable quantities must be identified in parentheses. And of course, for hazardous wastes, the waste code (e.g., D001) must also be entered. It is the combination of these substance names and waste codes that will tell us when the RQ designation is applicable.
It can be a little tricky to find the hazardous substance you're looking for in 49 CFR 172.101 Appendix A. Table 1 presents elements and compounds first, in alphabetical order through "T"; then there is a list of "D-code" hazardous waste streams, which appear mostly in numerical order; then back to elements and compounds beginning with the letters "U" through "Z"; followed finally by hazardous wastes with "F" and "K" waste codes in alphanumerical order.
Let's say that the name of the waste we're shipping is "Waste Flammable Liquids, n.o.s. (isopropanol, ethanol), Class 3, UN1992, PG I" and it is assigned a waste code of D001. The manifest lists 1 drum weighing 400 lbs. Neither isopropanol nor ethanol is listed in Table 1, but D001 is listed with an RQ of 100 lbs. Since the waste stream exhibits the characteristic of ignitability and has a D001 waste code, then the RQ designation has to be added to the shipping name.
But what if instead of isopropanol and ethanol, the waste contained some unknown quantity of the listed compounds isopropanol and methanol? Methanol is listed in Table 1 with an RQ of 5000 lbs. Does that mean our 400 lb. drum is not a reportable quantity? Not necessarily. If you don't know the concentration of the various constituents in the mixture you must use the lowest applicable reportable quantity, which in this case is 100 lbs. for waste code D001. If you do know the concentrations of the mixture constituents, then you have some additional work to do.
The definition of "hazardous substance" in 49 CFR 171.8 says that when a material (other than a radionuclide) is in a mixture or solution, the RQ designation applies when the quantity in one package exceeds the listed reportable quantity AND the concentration of the material by weight equals or exceeds the concentration corresponding to the RQ of the material, as shown in the following table:
If we know that our waste stream is 50% isopropanol and 50% methanol, then our 400 lb. drum would not get the RQ designation because the concentration of methanol allows us to the use the RQ for that substance, and the amount of methanol in the drum is well below the 5000 lb. reportable quantity.
So it can take some effort to work through the RQ identification process. To add a layer of difficulty to the process, most of my clients do not actually prepare their own manifests; they are prepared by a contractor or the hazardous waste vendor who uses a software application to select the waste streams from a database and print the manifest. If that's your situation, you will have to work closely with your vendor and make sure you carefully review the printed manifest against the hazardous materials tables before signing it. Don't forget that your signature goes under a statement declaring that you know the proper shipping name is accurate and the wastes are packaged, marked, labeled, and placarded correctly - which means you are responsible if it is not correct.
Barbara Jo Ruble, QEP, CPEA is the President of Specialty Technical Consultants. She has more than 30 years of experience helping corporations to develop, assess, and improve their EHS management systems and compliance programs. She is the primary author of OHSAS 18001/OSHA-VPP Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems: A Complete Implementation Guide, published by Specialty Technical Publishers of Vancouver, Canada. Barb may be reached at bruble@stcenv.com or by phone at 410-625-1952. |
