The National Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet, with broad responsibility, includes the departments of Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, and Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, as well as the Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission. The Environmental Quality Commission, created in 1972 to serve as a watchdog over environmental concerns, is a citizen's group of seven members appointed by the governor.
The most serious environmental concern in Kentucky is repairing and minimizing damage to land and water from strip-mining. Efforts to deal with such damage are relatively recent. The state has had a strip-mining law since 1966, but the first comprehensive attempts at control did not begin until the passage in 1977 of the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.
Also active in environmental matters is the Department of Environmental Protection, consisting of four divisions. The Division of Water administers the state's Safe Drinking Water and Clean Water acts and regulation of sewage disposal. The Division of Waste Management oversees solid waste disposal systems in the state. The Air Pollution Control Division monitors industrial discharges into the air and other forms of air pollution. Most air pollution has declined since the 1970s, with lead air concentrations down by 97% since 1970. A special division is concerned with Maxey Flats, a closed nuclear waste disposal facility in Fleming County, where leakage of radioactive materials was discovered.
There are 15 major dams in Kentucky, and more than 900 other dams. Flooding is a chronic problem in southeastern Kentucky, where strip-mining has exacerbated soil erosion.
In 2003, Kentucky had 149 hazardous waste sites, 14 of which were on the National Priorities List, listed in the Environmental Protection Agency's database. In 2001, Kentucky received $42,703,000 in federal grants from the Environmental Protection Agency; EPA expenditures for procurement contracts in Kentucky that year amounted to $8,793,000.