Tier II Chemical Reporting in Texas: Who Must File & How

Short answer: if your Texas facility keeps a hazardous chemical on site at or above its reporting threshold — generally 10,000 pounds, or as low as 500 pounds for an Extremely Hazardous Substance — you must file an EPCRA Tier II chemical inventory report by March 1 for the prior calendar year. In Texas the program is administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on behalf of the State Emergency Response Commission. Tier II is built directly from the chemical inventory you should already be keeping for OSHA HazCom — and SDSentry ($24.99 per location per month) is where small employers keep that per-location inventory current year-round, so you are not rebuilding it by hand every February. Here is who files and how it works in Texas.

Who has to file in Texas

Tier II is a federal requirement under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), and it applies in Texas the same way it applies nationwide. Any facility required to keep a safety data sheet for a hazardous chemical must file if that chemical is present on site at or above its reporting threshold at any point during the calendar year. The general thresholds are:

• 10,000 lbs for most hazardous chemicals (those that require an SDS).
• 500 lbs — or the chemical's Threshold Planning Quantity (TPQ), whichever is lower — for Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHSs) on EPA's list.

Quantities are based on the maximum amount present at any one time, aggregated across the facility. A small Texas business often stays under 10,000 lbs on everyday cleaning and disinfection products — but bulk propane or diesel tanks, stored fuel, pool and spa chemicals, fertilizer, or a large bulk supply of a single product can push you over. EHSs have much lower thresholds, so a relatively small amount of the wrong chemical can trigger a filing. The only way to know is to track your quantities.

The Texas reporting authority

EPCRA is a federal law, but each state runs its own State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) and collects Tier II its own way. In Texas, the Tier II chemical inventory program is administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Under EPCRA, copies of your report are provided to your SERC, your Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), and your local fire department.

Texas Tier II reports are filed electronically through TCEQ's STEERS Tier II online application (the State of Texas Environmental Electronic Reporting System), which serves as the state's Tier II repository. Start at TCEQ's Tier II program page, tceq.texas.gov/permitting/tier2, to set up your STEERS account and review the current instructions and any state-specific data fields. Because account setup, required fields, and program details can change from year to year, confirm the current details with TCEQ before you file, and confirm the federal program details at epa.gov/epcra.

The March 1 deadline

Tier II reports are due annually by March 1 and cover the previous calendar year. That federal EPCRA deadline applies in Texas, so a report filed in early 2026 covers chemicals present during calendar year 2025. Build the habit of compiling your inventory in January so you have time to reconcile quantities, confirm which products crossed a threshold, and submit before the deadline rather than scrambling at the end of February.

Texas filing fees

States are allowed to charge fees for Tier II submissions, and fee schedules differ by state and change over time. Because we cannot guarantee a current Texas fee amount here, we are not going to quote one. Before you file, confirm directly with TCEQ whether a filing fee applies to your facility, how it is calculated, and how to pay it. Treat any fee figure you see on a third-party site as unverified until you have checked it against TCEQ's official instructions.

How SDSentry helps you build the inventory

Tier II is only as easy as your underlying chemical inventory. If you keep a clean, current list of every hazardous product on site — with the quantity and unit per item — the report becomes a matter of reviewing what crossed a threshold and entering it into the Texas system. SDSentry is built for exactly this: a per-location inventory where you record quantity and unit per item, flag items over a threshold you set, and export an EPCRA Tier II CSV (including a Texas column layout) so your preparer is not rebuilding the data by hand every February. It does not file with TCEQ for you, but it turns the hardest part — compiling and maintaining the inventory the report is built from — into a download. It is a flat $24.99 per location per month with unlimited users and a 14-day free trial. Pair it with our guide to building a chemical inventory from scratch so the list is right before reporting season.

Track inventory for Tier II — free trial

Educational information only, not legal or compliance advice. Tier II thresholds, deadlines, submission systems, and fees can change, and state programs are administered separately — confirm the specifics for your facility with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality at tceq.texas.gov, with EPA at epa.gov/epcra, and with a qualified professional before you file.