Kentucky
Open Records
The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet takes requests for its records under the Kentucky Open Records Act. Its Open Records page sends every Cabinet request to one mailbox, EEC.KORA@ky.gov, and links a request form for the Department for Environmental Protection and another for the Department for Natural Resources. The same page sets out who may ask, what copies cost and what is held back.
In a Phase I ESA
A listing says a record exists. The reports and letters are in the file. The pages on each Kentucky program point to this route, and most of them name documents to ask for. Four points from the Cabinet's pages and the forms its Open Records page links shape a request.
- Who may ask. The page says that since June 29, 2021 only residents of the Commonwealth may ask to inspect public records, citing KRS 61.872(3). Under the definition it cites, KRS 61.870(10), residents include people who live in Kentucky, domestic businesses with a Kentucky location, foreign businesses registered with the Kentucky Secretary of State, people employed and working at a Kentucky location, and anyone acting for one of them. News-gathering organizations, as KRS 189.635(9)(b) defines them, may ask as well. The Attorney General's standard request form, which the page links, has the requester check one kind of resident, and its list has one the page leaves out: an individual or business that owns real property in Kentucky. Its sixth box is for an individual or business authorized to act for one listed above, and its last is for a news-gathering organization as KRS 189.635(8)(b) defines it, where the Cabinet's page cites KRS 189.635(9)(b). So a firm based outside Kentucky can ask for a client that owns the property, if the client authorizes it.
- Five business days is for the answer. Not counting weekends and holidays, the agency has five business days to answer in writing whether it will make the records available, and when they will be ready. The page gives no number of days for the records themselves, so plan for the date the answer names.
- Some reports need no request. The page links Search Available Reports on the Cabinet's eSearch, and says a number of public reports there can be had without an open records request.
- Electronic copies are free. The page lists no fee for producing electronic records. The UST Branch's Administrative Services Section, answering a facility buyer, says a request giving the facility address and the kind of document wanted brings it back electronically if it is available.
How to ask
The page says the Kentucky Open Records Act requires a written request to the records custodian of the agency that holds the records.
- By email. Write to EEC.KORA@ky.gov, describe the records in as much detail as you can, and give a contact name and number in case of questions. The mailbox takes requests for records only, not documents sent to the Cabinet; certain documents can be submitted electronically through its eForms site.
- On a form. The page links three request forms, sent to the same mailbox: one for each department and the Attorney General's. The Department for Environmental Protection's (DEP-0049) asks for the documents and the number of copies at 10 cents a page, the requester's company, address and phone, whether the information comes from a database or geographic information system, and whether it is for commercial use; when both answers are yes, the requester states and certifies the commercial purpose. The Attorney General's (Form OAG-01, June 2021, adopted by regulation, 40 KAR 1:040; read at the address the Attorney General's own page gives, where the Cabinet links a file of the same name at ag.ky.gov/Documents) asks for contact details and the records, whether the request is for a commercial purpose, and which kind of resident the requester is. This handbook did not open the Department for Natural Resources' form.
- By mail. Hard copy requests may also be mailed to the Office of Administrative Services, Division of Information Services - Public Records Branch, 300 Sower Blvd, 1st Floor, Frankfort, KY 40601.
For the law itself, the page links the Legislative Research Commission's statutes and the Attorney General's page on open records decisions. It also links the Surface Mining Information System (SMIS) and DOCTREE, for coal mining permitting and enforcement actions.
What it costs
The page, which shows no date, lists these charges:
| Record | Charge |
|---|---|
| Electronic records | No fee |
| Copies 8.5 by 11 up to 11 by 17 inches, black and white or color | $0.10 a page |
| Oversized maps and drawings, black and white | $3 a map, $5 on vellum, $10 on Mylar |
| Oversized maps and drawings, color | $2.50 a square foot |
| CD or DVD | $3 a CD, $5 a DVD |
| TEMPO standard reports and any lists | $12 a report if asked for commercial purposes, otherwise free |
Whatever the purpose, the agency may still charge $0.10 a page to print a TEMPO report or list, or $3 to put it on a CD. The page does not explain TEMPO. The Attorney General's form gives the Act's definition, KRS 61.870(4): a commercial purpose is the direct or indirect use of any part of a public record, in any form, for sale, resale, solicitation, rent or lease of a service, or any use by which the user expects a profit through commission, salary or fee. It does not include publication or related use by a newspaper or periodical, or by a radio or television station in its news or informational program, or use in prosecuting or defending litigation by the parties or their attorney. The agency need not produce a database report outside its standard ones; if it decides to build one, it may charge what building it cost.
What is held back
Before a member of the public inspects a file, the page says, the file is checked for exempt material, and anything that cannot be disclosed is kept in separate files. It lists four kinds of record exempt under KRS 61.878:
- records a law enforcement agency, or an agency involved in administrative adjudication, gathered while detecting and investigating violations of statutes or regulations, where releasing them would harm the agency;
- preliminary drafts, notes and correspondence with private individuals, other than correspondence meant to give notice of a public agency's final action;
- preliminary recommendations, and preliminary memoranda that give opinions or shape policy;
- records whose release federal law or regulation forbids, or that an act of the General Assembly forbids, limits or makes confidential.
When a file comes back thinner than expected, ask whether material was set aside under one of these. For enforcement files, see Notices of violation and enforcement.
Field offices
The Division of Waste Management's Field Operations Branch page lists ten regional offices, at Florence, Frankfort, Hazard, London, Morehead, Bowling Green, Columbia, Louisville, Madisonville and Paducah, with the counties each one serves. Neither that page nor the Open Records page says which files a regional office keeps. The Department for Environmental Protection's request form says the public files in regional offices are not necessarily complete, and that complete public files may be examined at the appropriate central office in Frankfort. Ask for the central office's file.
Sources
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet pages, read October 14, 2026:
- Open Records, no modified date shown.
- Administrative Services Section, no modified date shown.
- Field Operations Branch, no modified date shown.
Office of the Attorney General page, read October 15, 2026:
- Open Records/Open Meetings, no modified date shown.
Request forms, read October 15, 2026:
- Request to Inspect Public Records, DEP-0049, Department for Environmental Protection, no modified date shown.
- Request to Inspect Public Records, Form OAG-01, Office of the Attorney General, dated June 2021.