Colorado Brownfields Program

The Brownfields Program of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is aimed at properties that sit untouched because of real or perceived contamination. It works alongside the state's voluntary cleanup program and offers environmental site assessments, tax credits, revolving loans, and up to $250,000 a year in statewide project funding.

In a Phase I ESA

CDPHE's brownfields site records are the Colorado form of the state brownfields records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a brownfields listing is on the Brownfields page. Four Colorado details shape how to read one.

• An assessment may already exist. Under its targeted assessments, CDPHE and its contractors carry out an environmental assessment using record research, sample collection and analysis, for public and nonprofit groups. CDPHE's page says it manages a $2,000,000 EPA Brownfields grant received in 2022 with four Colorado communities, and that grant funds can be used for Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments, cleanup planning and reuse planning. CDPHE says funding would likely be available through summer 2026, for approximately 30 high priority Phase I and 18 high priority Phase II sites. For a listed site, ask whether one of these assessments was done.
• Loan cleanups pass through voluntary cleanup. All cleanups financed through the Colorado Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund must have previous approval under the Voluntary Cleanup and Redevelopment Program, so a loan site should have a voluntary cleanup file too.
• The tax credit ends in a No Action Determination. To qualify for the state brownfields tax credit an applicant must submit a voluntary cleanup plan, and must receive a No Action Determination before CDPHE certifies the credit. CDPHE's page gives the credit as 40% of qualifying remediation costs on the first $750,000 and 30% on the amount between $750,000 and $1,500,000, to a maximum of $525,000. In rural areas the rates are 50% and 40% and the maximum is $675,000. CDPHE's page says a 2022 law extended the credit through December 31, 2024. The page read does not say whether it has been extended since.
• Cleanup grants go where no other program can do the cleanup. CDPHE says House Bill 00-1306 gave limited state authority to use $250,000 a year to clean up contaminated land where no other federal or state program can accomplish the cleanup. Its Brownfields Cleanup Grant Program is open only to not-for-profit entities, non-federal governmental entities, and watershed or other community organizations. A project site must meet at least one of three criteria: it has no responsible party to perform the remediation, it has been determined to present a threat to human health or the environment, or its remediation will allow redevelopment for the public good.

The Division of Oil and Public Safety has a separate Petroleum Brownfields Program, which CDPHE's page links.

Where to look a site up

CDPHE's Brownfields Program page links three tools under its resources: Brownfield sites by county, a Brownfields CORA request data view, and an interactive map of Brownfield sites. The pages read do not say what puts a site on these lists or how often they are updated.

Getting the file

CDPHE's Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division has an online records search and takes requests through the form on its records review page or at cdphe_cora_hmwmd@state.co.us. The route is described on the records review page.

Sources

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment pages, read October 7, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Brownfields Program
• Colorado Brownfields tax credit notification requirements
• Brownfields Cleanup Grant Program, which carries the line "Updated in November of 2021"
• Voluntary Cleanup and Redevelopment Program
• Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division records review