Eighty illegal dumps across 18 counties will soon be targeted for cleanup, following nearly $1 million in grants being administered for the Commonwealth.
Governor Andy Beshear and Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman recently announced that sites in Anderson, Butler, Carter, Christian, Cumberland, Estill, Green, Harlan, Hart, Jackson, Johnson, Lawrence, Marion, Martin, Pike, Warren, Wolfe and Woodford have been highlighted in these efforts.
As part of the grant funding, Beshear said counties must agree to provide a 25% match of the grant amount, though the ECC may waive this agreement on any individual illegal open dump where cleanup costs exceed $50,000.
Since 2006, this grant has funded cleanup for more than 2,600 dump sites across Kentucky, and Goodman said she’s encouraged that more communities have been awarded this year, and thus taking advantage of the program.
These grants are resources from the Kentucky Pride Fun, which is generated through a $1.75 environmental remediation fee for each ton of garbage dumped at Kentucky’s municipal solid waste landfills. It’s a fee that was first authorized by the 2002 General Assembly under House Bill 174, for use in a dump cleanup reimbursement program and for the remediation of historic landfills.
In 2006, Senate Bill 50 changed the reimbursement program to a grant program and expanded the scope of the fund to address household hazardous waste collection and recycling infrastructure.
