Kentucky NPDES permit search
Status, expiry and violations for 194 municipal wastewater permits · issued by KDOW as KPDES permits
In short
How do I look up an NPDES permit in Kentucky?
Search this page by permit number or plant name for a municipal plant’s permit status, expiry date and violations. For the official file, search eSearch. EPA’s ECHO database shows the monitoring results and violations of every permit. The 3,779 industrial permits in Kentucky are listed in Klarifi with a free account.
Links to official sources checked September 2026.
Effective
170
Administratively continued
18
Expired
6
Plants with effluent violations, 3 years
174
Where to find official Kentucky NPDES records
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, Division of Water (KDOW) runs the NPDES program in Kentucky under authorization from EPA Region 4, as the Kentucky Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (KPDES). It issues and enforces the permits and keeps the official file: applications, permits, fact sheets and monitoring reports. KDOW website ↗
permits · permit documents
The Department for Environmental Protection’s search. In Issued Approvals set Program to Wastewater, type part of the facility name or choose the county and click Search; the arrow in the first column lists the permit documents.
permits · DMRs · inspections · violations · enforcement
EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online. Search water facilities by permit number, name or city; the Detailed Facility Report lists inspections, violations and enforcement actions, and Effluent Charts plot monitoring results against the permit limits.
- Permit numbers
- Permits follow EPA’s format (KY0001400). eSearch files facilities under an Agency Interest ID and keeps the permit number as an alternate ID; general permits start KYG and stormwater permits KYR.
- Discharge monitoring reports
- Through EPA’s NetDMR, by the 28th of the following month.
- Violations and enforcement
- the compliance data in eSearch ↗
Industrial and commercial NPDES permits in Kentucky
Most NPDES permits are not held by municipal plants. EPA’s permit database lists 3,779 individual permits in force for industrial and commercial facilities in Kentucky (manufacturers, food processors, mines, power plants, landfills), 109 of them major dischargers, plus 2,272 facilities covered by a general permit, mostly for stormwater. 689 of the individual permits recorded at least one effluent violation in the last three years.
| Facility | Permit | Status | Expires | Effluent violations |
|---|
Unlock 3,779 industrial permits in Kentucky
Search every industrial and commercial discharger in Kentucky by name or permit number, with permit status, expiry and violation history. Free with a Klarifi account.
Industrial and commercial NPDES permits in Kentucky: permits in force (effective or administratively continued) held by facilities EPA does not class as publicly owned treatment works or federal facilities. Source: EPA ICIS-NPDES via Klarifi, October 2026.
Violations at Kentucky wastewater plants
174 of the 194 municipal plants on this page recorded at least one effluent violation, a monitored value above a permit limit, in the last three years, and 175 had a violation of any kind, including late or missing monitoring reports. Each plant’s page shows its own count. EPA’s enforcement records list 22 formal cases naming Kentucky wastewater plants, 0 of them since fiscal year 2020, with $1.8 million in penalties assessed. Enforcement cases in Kentucky →
Permit renewals by year
An NPDES permit runs for five years. To keep discharging, a plant must apply for renewal at least 180 days before the expiry date, and the renewed permit usually arrives with tighter effluent limits, new monitoring requirements or a compliance schedule. That is why the year a permit expires is the year a plant starts budgeting for upgrades: nutrient removal, disinfection, capacity or controls.
2029: 32 permits
2030: 47 permits
2031: 31 permits
Largest permit holders in Kentucky
| Facility | City | Avg flow (MGD) | Design (MGD) | NPDES permit | Status | Expires | Violations (3y) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Derek R Guthrie WQTC MSD | Louisville | 55.21 | 60 | KY0078956 | Effective | Apr 2031 | 16 |
| Northern Ky Sanitation District 1 Dry Creek WWTP | Erlanger | 42.35 | 46.5 | KY0021466 | Effective | Jun 2031 | 2 |
| Rwra Max Rhoads WWTP | Owensboro | 7.68 | 15 | KY0020095 | Administratively continued | Dec 2021 | 1 |
| Valley Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant | Elizabethtown | 6.45 | 13 | KY0022039 | Administratively continued | Oct 2023 | 1 |
| Bee Creek WWTP | Murray | 3.39 | 8.75 | KY0072761 | Effective | Sep 2028 | 2 |
| Henderson South STP #2 | Robards | 2.69 | 8 | KY0100293 | Administratively continued | Jun 2012 | 0 |
| Richmond Otter Creek STP | Richmond | 5.92 | 8 | KY0107107 | Effective | Dec 2030 | 4 |
| Strodes Creek STP | Winchester | 4.5 | 7.2 | KY0037991 | Administratively continued | Sep 2026 | 1 |
| Fort Knox WWTP | Fort Knox | 1.82 | 6 | KY0112721 | Effective | Sep 2030 | 2 |
| Hopkinsville Hammond Wood STP | Hopkinsville | 3.67 | 6 | KY0066532 | Effective | Sep 2030 | 2 |
Kentucky NPDES permits: questions
NPDES permit search in other states
Sources and methodology
Flow, permit and violation figures come from the EPA's ICIS-NPDES discharge monitoring records. Population served comes from the Clean Watersheds Needs Survey 2022. Treatment structures are identified by Klarifi's review of aerial imagery, and capital improvement projects are extracted from published municipal budget documents. Violations are counted over the last three years of monitoring reports.
Data refreshed October 12, 2026.
Wastewater terms: NPDES permit · POTW · Significant industrial user · MGD · Anaerobic digester · Lift station · all terms