Kentucky
Groundwater Protection Plans (GPP)
A Groundwater Protection Plan (GPP) is required in Kentucky for any of a list of activities set out in 401 KAR 5:037, the regulation the Division of Water of the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection (DEP) promulgated in 1994. DEP says a GPP identifies activities at a site that have the potential to pollute groundwater and defines the best management practices used to protect groundwater.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name groundwater protection plans among its standard record sources. A GPP still matters, because the activities that require one are many of the uses a Phase I asks about. For a commercial or industrial property, ask whether a GPP exists; it lists the site's activities with the potential to pollute groundwater, and the practices meant to control them.
The activities DEP lists from Section 1(1) of 401 KAR 5:037 include:
- pesticide or fertilizer storage and handling for commercial purposes or distribution to a retail sales outlet;
- pesticide or fertilizer application for commercial purposes, public right-of-way maintenance or institutional lawn care;
- land treatment or land disposal of a pollutant;
- storage, treatment, disposal or handling of hazardous, solid or special waste in landfills, incinerators, surface impoundments, tanks, drums or other containers, or in piles;
- commercial or industrial bulk storage of raw materials, products, substances held for recycling or other pollutants in tanks, drums, other containers or piles, and their bulk transfer, including loading and unloading;
- transmission of such materials in pipelines;
- installation or operation of on-site sewage disposal systems;
- central storage of road oils, dust suppressants or deicing agents;
- mining and associated activities;
- installation, construction, operation or abandonment of wells, bore holes or core holes;
- collection or disposal of pollutants in an industrial or commercial facility through floor drains that are not connected to an on-site sewage disposal system, a closed-loop collection or recovery system, or a waste treatment system permitted under the Kentucky Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (KPDES);
- surface impoundments, lagoons, pits or ditches holding pollutants.
Who writes a GPP and how long it lasts
Anyone who needs a GPP may develop one; DEP says no professional certification is required. A GPP is valid for three years, or until activities, protective practices or personnel change in a way that requires an update. Inspection and maintenance records must be kept for six years. DEP offers six generic GPPs, among them ones for home heating oil tanks, residential septic systems, domestic water wells and monitoring well owners.
Where to look a site up
The pages read link no list of GPPs. Plans are submitted through DEP's Water Protection Programs Document Submittal eForm, by email to the GPP Program Coordinator at DOWDrillersProgram@ky.gov, or by mail to the GPP Program Coordinator, 300 Sower Blvd, 3rd Floor, Frankfort, KY 40601.
For groundwater and well data, DEP points to the following:
- Under KRS 151.035 the Kentucky Geological Survey is the Commonwealth's official repository for groundwater information. DEP says its Division of Water sends its groundwater data there every three months, and links the Survey's searches for groundwater quality data and for well records and location information.
- DEP's Ambient Groundwater Monitoring Network viewer maps its sampling locations and results.
- DEP's Well Record Information Map is kept for well drillers, and DEP says it is also useful for viewing the number of wells present within a site of interest.
- Dye trace maps and data for karst areas are on the UKnowledge portal.
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: