Texas spill reports

In Texas a reportable spill, discharge or release is reported to the state through the State of Texas Spill-Reporting Hotline or a regional office of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Whether a release must be reported depends on the substance and on where it was released. TCEQ publishes the reportable quantities.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name state spill lists among its standard record sources. The federal counterpart of a state spill list is the emergency response record described on the ERNS page. Texas spill records still matter, because a spill report can be the only record of a release that never became a cleanup case.

• The 30-day report is the document to get. Within 30 working days of discovering a reportable spill, the responsible person must send written information to the TCEQ regional office. It says the response is complete and how it was done, or asks for more time, or explains that the response will not be finished within the maximum extension of six months from the date of the spill.
• That report is specific. TCEQ asks for a chronology of the response, the amounts recovered and the amounts lost to the environment, and, if soil was affected, the amount removed with a scaled map of the lateral and vertical extent of the excavation and the disposition of what was excavated.
• A federal report is not a state report. TCEQ notes that notifying the National Response Center does not constitute notice to the state, and neither does notifying a Local Emergency Planning Committee. A release can appear in one record and not the other.
• It might not be TCEQ's spill. TCEQ says that depending on what is spilled and where, another agency may have jurisdiction. It names the General Land Office, the Railroad Commission of Texas, the Department of State Health Services, the Parks and Wildlife Department and the Department of Public Safety. A spill tied to oil and gas activity is a reason to check the Railroad Commission's records as well.

TCEQ says the objective of a spill cleanup is to return the site to pre-spill or background conditions. If the cleanup will take no more than 180 days, the responsible party may elect to clean up under the Texas Risk Reduction Program rule instead. That choice requires an affected property assessment and a report approved by the TCEQ regional office, so a spill cleaned up that way has a second document in the file.

Where to look a site up

The follow-up report is filed with the TCEQ regional office for the area, so that office and a records request are the route to it. TCEQ's Spills, Discharges, and Releases page links the regional office list, the reportable quantities and the reporting requirements.

Getting the file

TCEQ offers three routes to its records: TCEQ Records Online for records already scanned, an email to the Central File Room (cfrreq@tceq.texas.gov) to view or copy paper and microform records, and a Public Information Request for records that are not available through the file room or that contain confidential information.

Sources

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality pages, read September 30, 2026:

• Spills, Discharges, and Releases, last modified September 23, 2026.
• Spills: Information for the Follow-up Report Required within 30 Days, last modified November 14, 2025.
• Spills: Which State Agency Has Jurisdiction?, last modified May 1, 2026.
• Spills: Cleanup and Waste Management, last modified May 20, 2026.
• Access Records from our Central File Room, last modified July 17, 2026.