Kentucky Begins New Source Water Protection Assistance Program Modeled After Washington State

The Kentucky Division of Water (DOW) has created a new source water protection assistance program that is modeled after the Washington State grant program.  A big “thank you” to Kitty Weisman of Washington State, who worked with Jessica Moore of Kentucky to help her and her colleagues create the new program.

Through this program, Kentucky is making up to $60,000 of funding assistance available to public water systems (PWSs), towns, cities, counties, and schools for new and existing projects.  Projects may include:  closing abandoned wells; installing best management practices; or implementing management strategies previously identified in a wellhead or source water protection plan.  The goal of the Kentucky program is to provide funding for small projects that can be accomplished in a relatively short period of time.  The deadline for this year’s applications is March 1st and the funding recipients will have roughly one year following contract submittal to complete projects.   Applicants are not required to provide matching funds or in-kind services to receive funding.  Although, supplemental funding contributions, including in-kind resources, are being taken into consideration during the application evaluation process and the DOW is encouraging partnerships to implement source water protection.

For more information on Kentucky’s program, visit the DOW website at:  http://water.ky.gov/groundwater/Pages/SWPAssistanceProgram.aspx  or contact Jessica Moore of Kentucky at 502-564-3410 or Jessica.Moore2@ky.gov.