|
Governor Steve Beshear's Communications Office
Governor Beshear Announces Emergency Grants to Eliminate Dumps in 84 Counties with Flood Damage
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Gov. Steven L. Beshear today announced that approximately $1.6 million is being awarded in emergency grants to help flood-damaged counties clean up solid waste generated by floodwaters. The eligible counties are those that declared a state of emergency because of the major flood event earlier this month.
Participating counties may elect a $10,000 or $20,000 grant, depending on their assessment of the cost to deal with the solid waste generated by flooding in their counties. All grantees must provide a 25 percent match to their grant amount. Counties may collect the municipal solid waste from residents, or may establish one or more collection points to which residents can deliver such solid waste for disposal by the county.
State funding for the illegal open dump grant program comes from a $1.75 environmental remediation fee for each ton of garbage disposed of at Kentucky municipal solid waste disposal facilities. The "tipping fee," authorized by the 2002 General Assembly under House Bill 174, is collected quarterly and placed in the Kentucky Pride Fund to help combat illegal dumping and finance the closure of old landfills.
The Kentucky Pride Fund is the first legislated and ongoing source of state funding for dump cleanup. Illegal open dump cleanup has been conducted in Kentucky for several years, using primarily county and federal money. These are the first “emergency” grants – awarded outside of the normal annual grant cycle – to assist counties in eliminating solid waste dumps created by a natural disaster.
Senate Bill 50, which became effective in 2006, changed the illegal open dump reimbursement program to a grant program. The legislation also expanded the scope of the fund to address household hazardous waste collection and recycling infrastructure, in addition to illegal dump and old landfill projects.
Grant amounts are not available until all applications are received. The counties eligible to apply for the emergency dump grant include: Adair, Allen, Anderson, Ballard, Barren, Bath, Bourbon, Boyd, Boyle, Bracken, Breckinridge, Bullitt, Butler, Carlisle, Carroll, Carter, Casey, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Crittenden, Cumberland, Edmonson, Elliott, Estill, Fleming, Franklin, Fulton, Garrard, Graves, Grayson, Green, Greenup, Hancock, Hardin, Harrison, Hart, Henderson, Henry, Hickman, Hopkins, Jackson, Jessamine, Knott, Larue, Lee, Leslie, Lewis, Lincoln, Livingston, Logan, Lyon, Madison, Magoffin, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McLean, Menifee, Mercer, Metcalfe, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Muhlenberg, Nelson, Nicholas, Ohio, Owen, Pendleton, Powell, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Rowan, Russell, Scott, Simpson, Taylor, Trigg, Union, Warren, Washington, Wayne and Woodford.
###
|