Kentucky
Brownfield Inventory
The Kentucky Brownfield Inventory is a list maintained by the Kentucky Brownfield Program of the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection (DEP). DEP defines brownfields as abandoned, unused or underused properties where redevelopment is hindered due to known or suspected contamination. It says the inventory is a valuable planning tool for land use and a living document, updated regularly as site-specific information becomes available.
In a Phase I ESA
The inventory is the Kentucky form of the state brownfield records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a brownfields listing is on the Brownfields page.
Three Kentucky details shape how to read it.
- DEP says it is not complete. Although the state maintains the inventory, DEP says it is not a comprehensive list of sites. Do not read a property's absence from it as a finding.
- Two descriptions of what it holds. The same DEP page describes the inventory in two ways. One paragraph says it consists primarily of properties that are receiving, or have received, assessments or cleanups under federal brownfield funding to states or local government entities. The paragraph beside its link says it includes properties that are receiving, or have received, assessments or cleanups under the state program. For a listed property, ask the Brownfield Program which applies.
- A listing can mean earlier reports exist. Both descriptions tie a listing to an assessment or a cleanup. Ask for the reports.
The Brownfield Program around it
DEP's Brownfield Program offers its services to local officials, nonprofit groups, property owners, private developers and others. Its services are the Targeted Brownfield Assessment Program, liability relief under the Brownfield Redevelopment and Reuse Program (415 Program), grants and loans for assessment and cleanup costs open to local governments, quasi-government agencies and nonprofits, grant writing help, outreach, and the Voluntary Environmental Remediation Program (VERP).
The inventory page also links the Kentucky State Superfund List, which DEP says is not limited to brownfields, and EPA's Cleanups in My Community mapping tool.
Where to look a site up
DEP links the inventory to the Available Reports search of the Cabinet's eSearch. The inventory page says two things about access. Beside the inventory's link it says that to view or obtain copies of the inventory, you must file an open records request. A separate link on the same page, to the same address, says an open records request is no longer needed to search these properties. Try the search first, and send a request if it does not answer.
The Brownfield Help Desk is at 502-564-6716 and brownfields@ky.gov.
Getting the file
The Cabinet takes open records requests by email to EEC.KORA@ky.gov, with as much detail as possible about the records sought. Only residents of the Commonwealth, as the Open Records page defines them, may request to inspect public records.
Sources
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet pages, read October 12, 2026, no modified date shown: