House Version of Kentucky’s “Dirty Water Act” Doesn’t Plug Holes Senate Bill 89 Creates In Protection of Kentucky’s Water Resources

Senate Bill 89 - the "Dirty Water Act" - passed the House and Senate and was sent to the Governor. The bill limits protections against pollution to only those waters that are defined as “navigable” under the federal Clean Water Act, stripping away protections for water resources that Kentuckians rely on for drinking water, recreating, fishing, watering livestock, and crop irrigation. The House version of SB89 (which passed) clawed back a small subset of state waters, but it was insufficient and leaves most groundwater resources and private wells outside of protected state waters. 

KRC signed onto a Joint Statement of Opposition to SB89, signed by organizations across the Commonwealth, voicing their unified concerns about the significant impacts of SB89 on Kentucky’s waters and communities. 

KRC has also developed a number of fact sheets, with legal analysis concerning this impacts and what will be lost. Following Governor Beshear's veto of Senate Bill 89, its proponents have circulated a “fact check,” purporting to counter the Governor’s veto message. Our most recent fact sheet, developed in partnership with Kentucky Sierra Club, Kentucky Conservation Committee, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, and Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, addresses these false claims and is available here: "Fact Checking the Fact Check."

Fact Sheet #1 is an overview of the bill and its impacts. This SB89 Fact Sheet in also available in SPANISH (Courtesy of Sierra Club)

In response to public outcry, supporters of the bill circulated misleading claims that SB89 won't harm our water, and simply aligns our permitting program with federal law. Our Fact Sheet #2 addresses those false claims. 

Fact Sheet #3 is our analysis of the House Committee Amendment to SB89 (the version that passed).

What you can do:
➡️ Ask your legislators to uphold the veto! Our friends at Kentucky Sierra Club have put together a list of phone numbers and actions you can take here: https://www.sierraclub.org/kentucky/stopsb89

MORE INFORMATION:

In a letter to Representative Gooch, the Secretary of Kentucky's Energy and Environment Cabinet expressed the State's "grave concerns" about SB 89, saying it "applies a machete to an issue that needs a scalpel, at a cost to Kentuckians." Read that letter here. You can read the Energy & Environment Cabinet’s analysis of SB 89 (addressing the insufficincies of the House Committee Substitute, which passed) here.  does not fix these problems, noting: "The proposed language does not address groundwater aquifers, which would leave approximately 89,000 Domestic Use (DU) and agricultural (ag) wells unprotected as well as 156 water systems whose source water comes from groundwater." On March 12, 2025, the Secretary sent a letter to Members of the Kentucky House of Representatives, again expressing the Cabinet's concerns, and noting: "The bill would require additional treatment for drinking and wastewater because fewer source waters would be protected, which would significantly impact water quality downstream. [] The House Committee Substitute does not address groundwater aquifers and would provide no protection for the state’s residents who have domestic use wells, including Kentucky’s farmers, and those who rely on water systems whose source water comes from groundwater."

As KRC's Tom FitzGerald explained in this Op-Ed for the Kentucky Lantern, "despite efforts to muddy the waters on the reach and negative impacts of SB 89, we can clearly see to the bottom of the proposal." The damage it will cause to Kentucky’s water resources, economy, and people is "crystal clear." Read his second op-ed here. As Fitz writes in this Op-Ed to the Herald Leader, SB89 fails to protect almost all rural Kentucky’s households and farms that rely on private wells.

KRC, Kentucky Sierra Club, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, and Kentucky Conservation Committee held a press conference to raise concerns about SB 89, a bill that would weaken protections for Kentucky’s waterways, putting our drinking water and environment at risk. We were joined by Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House (read his remarks here) and LiKen’s Madison Mooney, who shared their perspectives on what’s at stake.

This bill puts our drinking water and natural resources at risk, increasing treatment costs for city and county water systems and the costs of pollution controls for permitted industries downstream. We ALL live downstream, and what happens upstream impacts us all. Ask you legislators to NOT vote to overturn the Governor's veto of SB89.