CHAPTER 38
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CHAPTER 38
( HB 222 )
AN ACT relating to the hazardous waste management fund.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:
ď˘Section 1. KRS 224.46-580 is amended to read as follows:
(1) The General Assembly declares that it is the purpose of this section to promote the development of statewide
programs, under the responsibility of a single agency, which are intended to protect the health of the citizens
and the environment of the Commonwealth from present and future threats associated with the management of
hazardous wastes and the release of toxic chemicals regulated under Title III, Section 313 of the Superfund
Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986, including disposal, treatment, recycling, storage, and
transportation. The intent of the General Assembly is to add to and coordinate, and not replace, existing efforts
and responsibilities in the areas of hazardous waste management, toxic chemical manufacture, processing, or
other use, and to leave the primary burden and responsibility for hazardous waste and toxic chemical reduction
on private industry; and further to finance assistance and coordination by imposing assessments on the
generation of hazardous waste. The assessments are intended to produce a reduction in waste generated; to
promote the use of new techniques in recycling, treatment, and alternatives other than land disposal; and to
place the burden of financing additional hazardous waste management activities necessarily undertaken by
state agencies on the users of those products associated with the generation of hazardous waste. The General
Assembly further finds that Kentucky's industries need assistance in developing and implementing pollution
prevention goals and that a fund should be established to provide technical and financial assistance to those
industries.
(2) The Energy and Environment Cabinet is given the authority to administer the provisions and programs of this
section and the responsibility to achieve the purposes of this section.
(3) In addition to all specific responsibilities contained elsewhere in this chapter, the cabinet shall:
(a) Respond effectively and in a timely manner to emergencies created by the release of hazardous
substances, as defined in KRS 224.1-400, into the environment. The cabinet shall provide for adequate
containment and removal of the hazardous substances in order that the threat of a release or actual
release of the substance may be abated and resultant harm to the environment minimized. The
provisions of KRS 45A.695 to 45A.725 may be suspended by the cabinet if necessary to respond to an
environmental emergency;[.]
(b) Provide for post-closure monitoring and maintenance of hazardous waste disposal sites upon
termination of post-closure monitoring and maintenance responsibilities by persons permitted to operate
the facility pursuant to this chapter; and[.]
(c) Identify, investigate, classify, contain, or clean up any release, threatened release, or disposal of a
hazardous substance where responsible parties are economically or otherwise unavailable to properly
address the problem and the problem represents an imminent danger to the health of the citizens and the
environment of the Commonwealth.
(4) The cabinet shall have the authority to finance the nonfederal share of the cost for clean up of sites under the
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (Pub. L. 96-510).
(5) The cabinet shall recover, when possible, actual and necessary expenditures incurred in carrying out the duties
under this section. Any expenditures recovered shall be placed in the hazardous waste management fund.
(6) It is the expressed purpose of this section to accomplish effective hazardous waste and toxic chemical
management that results in a reduction of the generation of hazardous wastes and the release of toxic
chemicals within the Commonwealth; further, it is a purpose of this chapter to allocate a portion of the cost of
administering necessary governmental programs related to hazardous waste and toxic chemical management to
those industries whose products are reasonably related to the generation of hazardous waste.
(7) There is hereby imposed upon every person engaged within this state in the generation of hazardous waste an
annual hazardous waste assessment to be determined pursuant to this section according to the quantity by
weight of hazardous waste generated, except that no assessment shall be levied against generators for any ACTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2
quantity of "special wastes," waste oil, or spent material from air pollution control devices controlling
emissions from coke manufacturing facilities. The assessment shall not be imposed upon any person for any
quantities of hazardous waste generated by others for which that person is a secondary handler that stores,
processes, or reclaims the waste. The assessment shall be reported and paid to the Energy and Environment
Cabinet for the generation of hazardous waste on an annual basis on January 1 of each year. The payment shall
be accompanied by a report or return in a form that the cabinet may prescribe. If a federal law is enacted which
accomplishes or purports to accomplish the purposes set forth in this section and which levies an assessment or
tax upon any business assessed pursuant to this section, the amount of the assessment to be levied upon the
business under this section shall be reduced by the amount of the federal assessment or tax upon the business.
The reduction shall only be authorized when funds raised by the federal assessment or tax are made available
to the state for any of the activities to be funded under this section. If federal moneys are available to carry out
the duties imposed by subsection (3) of this section, the assessment shall cease to be levied and collected until
such time as federal moneys are no longer available to the Commonwealth for these purposes. The assessment
shall be charged against generators of hazardous waste until June 30, 2032[2024]. After this date, no further
hazardous waste management assessment shall be charged against generators. The hazardous waste assessment
shall be waived for any generator owing less than fifty dollars ($50) for the year. However, a return must be
filed by generators to whom a payment waiver applies.
(8) The assessment on generators shall be one and two-tenths cents ($0.012) per pound if the waste is liquid, or
two-tenths of a cent ($0.002) per pound if the waste is solid.
(a) Hazardous waste that is injected into a permitted underground injection well shall be assessed on a dry
weight basis;
(b) Hazardous waste treated, detoxified, solidified, neutralized, recycled, incinerated, or disposed of on-site
shall be assessed at one-half (1/2) of the appropriate rate, except for recycled waste used in the steel
manufacturing process which shall be exempt;
(c) Waste that is subject to regulation under Section 402 or 307B of the Federal Clean Water Act shall be
exempt;
(d) Emission control dust and sludge from the primary production of steel that is recycled by high
temperature metals recovery or managed by stabilization of metals shall be exempt; and
(e) Waste that is delivered from the generator to an on-site or off-site industrial boiler or furnace and
burned for energy recovery in accordance with state and federal laws and regulations shall be assessed
at one-half (1/2) of the appropriate rate.
(9) Except for waste brought into the state by a company to an affiliated manufacturing facility of the company
receiving the waste, any person who transports hazardous waste into the state for land disposal or treatment
which is generated outside of the state shall pay an assessment to the hazardous waste facility which first
receives the waste for storage, treatment, or land disposal. The assessment rate shall be identical to the rate
described in subsection (8) of this section. The facility shall remit the assessment to the cabinet on an annual
basis on January 1 of each year. The payment shall be accompanied by a return the cabinet shall prescribe.
(10) If any generator or hazardous waste facility subject to the provisions of subsection (8) or (9) of this section
fails or refuses to file a return or furnish any information requested in writing by the cabinet, the cabinet may,
from any information in its possession, make an estimate and issue an assessment against the generator or
hazardous waste facility and add a penalty of ten percent (10%) of the amount of the assessment so
determined. This penalty shall be in addition to all other applicable penalties in this chapter.
(11) If any generator or hazardous waste facility subject to the provisions of subsection (8) or (9) of this section
fails to make and file a return required by this chapter on or before the due date of the return or the due date as
extended by the cabinet, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the cabinet[,] that the failure is due to
reasonable cause, five percent (5%) of the assessment found to be due by the cabinet shall be added to the
assessment for each thirty (30) days or fraction thereof elapsing between the due date of the return and the date
on which it is filed, but the total penalty shall not exceed twenty-five percent (25%) of the assessment.
(12) If the assessment imposed by this chapter, whether assessed by the cabinet[,] or the generator, or any
installment or portion of the assessment is not paid on or before the date prescribed for its payment, there shall
be collected, as a part of the assessment, interest upon the unpaid amount at the rate of eight percent (8%) per
annum from the date prescribed for its payment until payment is actually made to the cabinet. CHAPTER 38
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(13) (a) There is hereby created within the State Treasury a trust and agency fund, which shall not lapse, to be
known as the hazardous waste management fund. The fund shall be deposited in an interest-bearing
account. The cabinet shall be responsible for collecting and receiving funds as provided in this
section[,] and all such assessments collected or received by the State Treasury shall be deposited in the
hazardous waste management fund. All interest earned on the money deposited in the fund shall be
deposited to the fund. When the State Treasurer certifies to the cabinet that the uncommitted balance of
the hazardous waste management fund exceeds six million dollars ($6,000,000), assessments shall not
be collected until the State Treasurer certifies to the cabinet that the balance in the hazardous waste
management fund is less than three million dollars ($3,000,000). The implementation of the cap on the
fund shall be suspended from July 13, 1990, until July 1, 1991. In addition, for assessments paid after
July 1, 1991, the cabinet shall refund or grant a credit against the next assessment to come due, on a
pro-rated basis, any money collected in one (1) year in excess of the cap.
(b) In any fiscal year in which the fees assessed under this section total less than one million eight hundred
thousand dollars ($1,800,000) in fiscal year 2007-2008 dollars, adjusted annually to reflect any increase
in the cost-of-living index, the difference between the fee receipts and the adjusted minimum balance
shall be transferred from funds collected pursuant to KRS 224.60-130.
(c) The cabinet shall file with the Legislative Research Commission a biennial report, beginning two (2)
years after July 15, 2008, on the revenues and expenditures of the fund.
(14) There is hereby created within the State Treasury a trust and agency account, which shall not lapse, to be
known as the pollution prevention fund. The fund shall be placed in an interest-bearing account. The fund shall
be administered by the Center for Pollution Prevention. The cabinet shall remit to the fund each fiscal year
twenty percent (20%) of the funds received by the hazardous waste management fund subject to the enacted
budget bill.
(15) Upon request of the secretary, moneys accumulated in the hazardous waste management fund shall be released
in amounts necessary to accomplish the performance of the duties imposed by subsection (3) of this section.
However, moneys from the fund shall not be used when federal moneys are available to carry out these duties,
except when immediate action is required to protect public health or the environment, in which case the
cabinet shall actively pursue reimbursement of the fund by any available federal moneys.
(16) If any person responsible for a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance fails to take response
actions or to make reasonable progress in completing response actions ordered by the cabinet, the cabinet may
bring an action to compel performance or may take appropriate response actions and order the responsible
person to reimburse the cabinet for the actual costs incurred by the cabinet.
(17) If disposal activities have occurred at a hazardous waste site, the cabinet shall record, in the office of the
county clerk in the county in which a waste site is situated, a notice containing a legal description of the
property that discloses to any potential transferee that the land was used to dispose hazardous waste and that
further information on the hazardous waste site may be obtained from the cabinet.
(18) No person shall affect the integrity of the final cover, liners, or any other components of any containment
system after closure of a hazardous waste site on or in which hazardous waste remains without prior written
approval of the cabinet.
Signed by Governor March 21, 2023.