Gov. Beshear Announces Nearly $600,000 in Grants to 18 Kentucky Counties to Clean Up Illegal Open Dumps
FRANKFORT, Ky. (Feb. 2, 2021) – Gov. Andy Beshear and Kentucky Energy and Environment (EEC) Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman today announced approximately $587,000 in grants for the cleanup of 72 illegal dumps in 18 counties across the commonwealth.
“Kentuckians deserve to live in clean, safe communities. Illegal dump sites can affect families’ quality of life and property values through no fault of their own,” Gov. Beshear said. “This grant program provides a healthier environment for thousands of our people.”
The following counties received grants: Adair, Breathitt, Butler, Floyd, Green, Hart, Henderson, Johnson, LaRue, Lawrence, Madison, Magoffin, Marshall, Metcalfe, Pike, Warren, Whitley and Wolfe.
As part of the grant funding, counties must agree to provide a 25 percent match of the grant amount. The EEC may waive the 25 percent match on any individual illegal open dump where cleanup costs exceed $50,000.
“This grant has funded the clean up more than 2,000 dump sites across the state since its creation in 2006,” Secretary Goodman said. “I encourage all counties to take advantage of this program.”
Grants for the Illegal Open Dump Grant Program comes from the Kentucky Pride Fund, which is generated through a $1.75 environmental remediation fee for each ton of garbage dumped at Kentucky municipal solid waste landfills. This “tipping fee” was first authorized by the 2002 General Assembly under House Bill 174, for use in a dump cleanup reimbursement program, and for the remediation of historic landfills. In 2006, Senate Bill 50 changed the reimbursement program to a grant program and expanded the scope of the fund to address household hazardous waste collection and recycling infrastructure.
Kentucky has made significant progress in addressing the illegal dump issue thanks to this funding, along with statewide cleanup and educational campaigns by local, state and federal agencies.
For grant amounts, please call your local solid waste coordinator or Lisa Evans at lisa.evans@kygov.
Keep up the good work Andy
What about the dump at the first residence on Little Cat Fork??
Thanks for your hard work!!! I sure wish we could have some sort of program where we could clean up the shoreline at Yatesville Lake. Walking around there right now is very sad. Tires, trash, propane tanks, floats, etc. piles………I just DO NOT understand people throwing garbage out! Bad enough on land, but into a lake is terrible!
I would say a lot of that trash is thrown into the creeks that feed into the lake. I see it all the time, people either pile it up on the creek bank or burn it on the creek bank and wait for the next storm to raise the water in the creek and take the trash on down the line. Now it’s not their problem anymore and is someone else’s !!!