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Kentucky

Underground storage tank registrations

Agency Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection
ASTM search distance Subject property and adjoining properties

The Underground Storage Tank (UST) Branch of the Division of Waste Management, in the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection (DEP), registers underground storage tank systems. Its Administrative Services Section manages UST system registration and notification requirements, including changes in owner and operator, and invoices and collects the annual registration fees. EPA has granted final approval of Kentucky's UST State Program Approval application, which allows Kentucky's UST Program to operate in lieu of the federal program; the approval became effective September 16, 2020.

In a Phase I ESA

The UST Branch's registrations are the Kentucky form of the state registered storage tank records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a registered tank listing is on the UST / AST page. A registration says a tank system exists or existed. Releases are a separate record, the underground storage tank release and corrective action case.

Three Kentucky details shape the search.

  • Exempt tanks are not registered. All UST systems in the Commonwealth must be registered with the UST Branch unless the tank system is exempt from UST regulations. The Division posts a List of UST Exempt Tanks. Check it before reading a missing registration as a missing tank. Releases from tanks the branch does not regulate are on the Non-UST petroleum releases page.
  • The registration names the owner. DEP says the registration of a regulated UST system establishes its ownership and designates financial responsibility, including eligibility in the Petroleum Storage Tank Environmental Assurance Fund (PSTEAF). A change in ownership requires a new registration form. DEP's answers to owners add that a seller who cannot get the new owner to register can send a copy of the executed deed, or another mutually executed legal document supporting the sale, to have the tanks taken out of its name.
  • Installation and removal permits go to the Fire Marshal. A permit application goes to the Office of the State Fire Marshal to install, repair or upgrade a UST system, including internal lining and UST removals. This handbook does not read the Fire Marshal's pages. The pages read name no DEP registry of aboveground tanks.

What a tank file can hold

The registration form is the DWM 4225 UST Facility Registration Form. DEP says the information on it is used to determine, among other things, the ownership of the UST system, financial responsibility and eligibility to take part in the PSTEAF. If the form is complete and the applicant is eligible to take part in the PSTEAF, the UST Branch issues an approval letter.

UST systems must have leak detection, spill and overfill prevention, corrosion protection and financial responsibility, and USTs that do not meet these minimum requirements must be permanently closed. The Compliance Section oversees the UST Technical Compliance Inspection (TCI) Program. When an owner or operator removes or replaces any part of a UST system, the procedures in Section 4.0 of the UST Corrective Action Manual apply, under 401 KAR 42:060. For a tank that was removed, ask for those closure records.

Where to look a site up

Getting the file

DEP's own answer to a buyer who needs a facility's tank sizes is an open records request: email eec.kora@ky.gov with the facility address and the type of documents needed, such as the last approved UST Facility Registration Form. If the information is available, it is sent electronically. The branch's resources page also lists a UST Open Records Cheat Sheet. Only residents of the Commonwealth, as the Cabinet's Open Records page defines them, may request to inspect public records; the same page sets out the Cabinet's general route.

Sources

Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet pages, read October 12, 2026, no modified date shown:

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