Kentucky environmental records for a Phase I ESA
Kentucky programs
Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection 16
- Underground storage tank registrations
- Underground storage tank releases and corrective action
- Non-UST petroleum releases
- State Superfund List
- Voluntary Environmental Remediation Program (VERP)
- Brownfield Inventory
- Brownfield Redevelopment and Reuse Program (415 Program)
- Targeted Brownfield Assessment Program
- Clandestine Methamphetamine Lab Cleanup
- Solid Waste Branch facilities
- Hazardous waste generator registrations
- Permit Review and Corrective Action
- Managed Sites
- Environmental emergencies and spill reports
- Notices of violation and enforcement
- Groundwater Protection Plans (GPP)
Kentucky Department for Natural Resources 3
A Phase I records review in Kentucky draws mainly on the Department for Environmental Protection (DEP) of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. Its Division of Waste Management has the branches behind most of the programs on this page: Underground Storage Tank, Superfund, Solid Waste, Hazardous Waste and Emergency Response. The Cabinet's Department for Natural Resources oversees oil and gas wells and coal mining. This page maps each kind of record ASTM E1527-21 asks for to the Kentucky program behind it, and links a page on each program.
The standard record types, in Kentucky
| ASTM record type | Kentucky program | Agency |
|---|---|---|
| State Superfund equivalent | State Superfund List | DEP |
| State hazardous waste facilities | No single Kentucky list is paired here. The Kentucky records that bear on it are Hazardous waste generator registrations and Permit Review and Corrective Action. | DEP |
| Landfills and solid waste sites | Solid Waste Branch facilities | DEP |
| Leaking storage tanks | Underground storage tank releases and corrective action. The pages read link no list of release cases; the pairing is the handbook's reading. Releases from tanks the Underground Storage Tank Branch does not regulate are on the Non-UST petroleum releases page. | DEP |
| Registered storage tanks | Underground storage tank registrations. The pages read name no DEP registry of aboveground tanks. | DEP |
| Institutional and engineering controls | No single Kentucky list is paired here. The pages read name no registry of controls. The nearest page is Managed Sites: sites closed as managed under 401 KAR 100:030, which must maintain use restrictions and certify that their controls remain in place. | DEP |
| Voluntary cleanup sites | Voluntary Environmental Remediation Program (VERP). The pages read link no list of VERP sites; the pairing is the handbook's reading. | DEP |
| Brownfields sites | Brownfield Inventory. See also the Brownfield Redevelopment and Reuse Program (415 Program) and the Targeted Brownfield Assessment Program. | DEP |
How far each search reaches is on the ASTM search distances page.
Other Kentucky records worth reading
These are not paired with a record type in the table above, but each answers a question a Kentucky Phase I runs into.
- Clandestine Methamphetamine Lab Cleanup: decontamination or demolition of properties posted as meth labs, and the certificates that record it.
- Environmental emergencies and spill reports: the 24-hour line, and which releases must be reported.
- Notices of violation and enforcement: how a notice of violation becomes an enforcement case.
- Groundwater Protection Plans (GPP): plans required for activities that could pollute groundwater, and where groundwater and well data are kept.
- Oil and gas well permits and records: well records and the abandoned wells list.
- Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class II wells: injection wells tied to oil and gas production.
- Surface Mining Information System (SMIS): coal mining permits, inspections and violations.
One Cabinet, two departments, and the Fire Marshal
DEP and the Department for Natural Resources are both part of the Energy and Environment Cabinet, and the Cabinet's open records page serves both. For a former commercial or industrial site, the tank, cleanup and waste programs are DEP's. For a property with oil, gas or coal history, the well, injection and mining programs are the Department for Natural Resources'.
Tanks are split. The Underground Storage Tank Branch regulates underground storage tank (UST) systems and oversees corrective action for releases from regulated systems. The Superfund Branch's Petroleum Section oversees petroleum releases that are not from USTs; that page says the branch regulates releases from non-regulated tanks but not the tanks themselves. The same page says the Office of the State Fire Marshal is responsible for plan review and permitting for the installation of underground and aboveground storage tanks. The UST pages add that a permit application goes to the Fire Marshal to install, repair or upgrade a UST system, including internal lining and UST removals, and that only contractors certified through the Fire Marshal's office can install, repair or close UST systems. This handbook does not read the Fire Marshal's pages.
One search across the Cabinet's programs
The Cabinet describes its eSearch as public access to information about permitting and compliance activities across its regulated community. Its open records page says a number of publicly available reports on eSearch do not require an open records request, and links them as Search Available Reports. The Kentucky Brownfield Inventory and the Kentucky State Superfund List are both linked to that address.
Getting a file from the Cabinet
A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. The Kentucky Open Records Act requires a written request to the records custodian of the agency. For all Cabinet records, the Open Records page says to email EEC.KORA@ky.gov with as much detail as possible about the records sought, and a contact name and number. A Request to Inspect Public Records form may be sent to the same mailbox instead, and hard copy requests may be mailed to the Office of Administrative Services, Division of Information Services - Public Records Branch, 300 Sower Blvd, 1st Floor, Frankfort, KY 40601. The mailbox is only for requesting records, not for submitting documents.
- The agency has five business days, not counting holidays and weekends, to respond in writing whether the records will be made available and when they will be ready.
- Effective June 29, 2021, only residents of the Commonwealth may request to inspect public records. The page counts as residents individuals living in Kentucky, domestic business entities with a location in Kentucky, foreign business entities registered with the Kentucky Secretary of State, individuals employed and working at a location in Kentucky, and anyone representing one of these. The page adds that news-gathering organizations, as a separate statute defines them, may also ask. A consultant based outside Kentucky should check which of these it meets before sending a request.
- There is no fee for electronic records. For hard copies, standard copies are 10 cents a page, with separate charges for oversized maps and drawings, CDs and DVDs, and TEMPO standard reports and any lists are $12 per report if requested for commercial purposes, otherwise free.
- Any file is reviewed before public inspection for exempt material, and non-disclosable material is kept in separate files. The exemptions the page lists include preliminary drafts, notes and recommendations, and certain records compiled in detecting and investigating violations.
Environmental emergencies are reported to the Cabinet 24 hours a day at 1-800-928-2380 or 502-564-2380.
Sources
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet pages, read October 12, 2026, no modified date shown: