Kentucky
Permit Review and Corrective Action
The Permit Review and Corrective Action Section of the Hazardous Waste Branch, in the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection (DEP), oversees the investigation and cleanup of hazardous environmental contamination. Its page is headed Kentucky's RCRA permitting program. Under both state and federal hazardous waste laws, all facilities that treat, store or dispose of hazardous waste must investigate and clean up all known or likely releases of hazardous wastes or materials with hazardous constituents. EPA granted Kentucky final authorization to implement the corrective action program on June 25, 1996.
In a Phase I ESA
This is the Kentucky record of investigations and cleanups at hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities. It sits beside the federal corrective action records described on the RCRA CORRACTS page. ASTM E1527-21 lists state hazardous waste facility records among its standard sources. This handbook does not pair a single Kentucky list with that type; this is one of the Kentucky records that bear on it.
Three details shape how to read one.
- The whole contiguous property is in scope. DEP says that shortly after a facility enters corrective action, a RCRA Facility Assessment identifies all areas on the contiguous property that were used for storage or disposal of waste or may otherwise have been affected by releases of hazardous constituents. These are its Solid Waste Management Units (SWMU) and Areas of Concern (AOC). For a parcel that was once part of such a facility, ask whether a unit was on it.
- Groundwater findings mean continued sampling. If groundwater is found to have been affected, the facility is put on a routine sampling schedule.
- Interim measures can become the remedy. If an investigation finds an imminent threat to human health or the environment, interim measures may be imposed. DEP says interim measures are often effective enough to become part of the final remedial measures, the Corrective Measures Study and Implementation.
How a case moves
DEP describes corrective action as generally proceeding from an investigation to a remedial phase:
- A RCRA Facility Assessment identifies the SWMUs and AOCs, which are sampled further if needed.
- Solids, sediment and groundwater may be sampled, as confirmatory sampling or as a RCRA Facility Investigation.
- Interim measures may be imposed where an imminent threat is found.
- The final remedial measures are the Corrective Measures Study and Implementation.
The requirements were established under the federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984, which amended the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976.
Where to look a site up
The pages read link no Kentucky list of facilities in corrective action. The Hazardous Waste Branch's information page links EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) search, and the Cabinet's eSearch lists a search for permits. The Division of Waste Management takes general questions at waste@ky.gov or 502-564-6716. Generator registrations are on the hazardous waste generator registrations page.
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. For a facility in corrective action, name the RCRA Facility Assessment, any RCRA Facility Investigation and the Corrective Measures Study. 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: