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Governor Steve Beshear's Communications Office
Governor Beshear Announces Emergency Grants to Eliminate Dumps in 6 Counties with July Flood Damage
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Gov. Steve Beshear today announced that approximately $250,000 is being awarded in emergency grants to help six flood-damaged counties clean up solid waste generated by flooding. The eligible counties are those that declared a state of emergency because of the major flood event earlier in July.
“After flood waters recede and clean up begins, sanitary disposal of damaged property can become a tremendous burden on counties and their citizens,” said. Gov. Beshear. “These emergency funds will assist those affected by the floods in properly disposing of flood-damaged items.”
The counties that may receive emergency dump grants are Carter, Lewis, Mason, Pike, Rowan and Shelby. Grant amounts are not available until all applications are received.
Five of the counties may elect a $15,000 or $25,000 grant, depending on their assessment of the cost to deal with the solid waste generated by flooding in their counties. The sixth – Pike County – may elect a $50,000 or $100,000 grant because of that county’s greater damage as determined by an assessment performed jointly by FEMA and the Kentucky Department of Emergency Management. 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 where residents can deliver 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, primarily using county and federal money. This is the second round of 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.
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