The Cross-State Journey

During this Spring, KCC has been hitting the road in order to engage our members across the state on issues in their region. Through our travels it has been notable to see how much of our legislative agenda has come in to play everywhere we have traveled.

During the April “Earth Month” we made the rounds at various Earth Day events, from Springfield to Louisville to Danville to Perryville. Then in May, we hit the road again in a camper van—for a week in far Eastern Kentucky to see some exciting developments with a couple of Trail Towns…and then we were off again for another week in far Western Kentucky to attend a nuclear energy conference as part of our work around Senate Joint Resolution 79, which established the Nuclear Energy Development Working Group.

Caring for our State Park Systems

One of our observations during our travels was the importance of the amendments we lobbied for during this past session to release more of the previously-appropriated $150 million in funds for improving our state parks through House Joint Resolution 76. You, our members and supporters, helped with your calls to lawmakers to get that resolution amended to release more of these critical funds. It is all too apparent on how important it will be to have the remainder of these funds released soon. We had the pleasure of taking our trusty camper van over to the many state parks that served as our camping base for our travel. It soon became quite clear why it was counter-productive to delay the release of these funds, which included construction funds for campground improvements, broadband, and other fundamental needs.

One of the State Park campgrounds we utilized had suffered flooding damage a few years before, and many of the sites were in dire need of trailer pad improvements. Several of the pads were advertised as having electric access but did not, and while the bathhouses were clean and well-cared for, they did not even include a complete sidewalk path (and certainly not one that was ADA-compliant). Considering this was during peak travel season and just before the Memorial Day weekend, we observed that the funds designated for capital park improvements could certainly have been put to good use in this under-loved campground.

Citizens in the trail towns of McKee and Jenkins meet to plan their future through outdoor recreation.

Land Conservation, Outdoor Recreation, and Economic Transition

As for our travels in Eastern Kentucky, KCC recently participated in an exciting series of workshops to support the Trail Towns of McKee and Jenkins. These communities have been going through a redevelopment planning process, hosted by the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities program. This work included a multi-faceted team of agencies and interest groups such as the U.S. EPA, USDA, the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Northern Border Regional Commission—to provide assistance for transitioning to a sustainable outdoor recreation economy. Jenkins was one of many towns in Eastern Kentucky that had been significantly impacted by historic flooding during July of 2022 and is eager to leverage this additional redevelopment assistance. Jenkins also intersects with a spectacular vista from the Pine Mountain Trail that the community considers a major attraction to build upon.

Visioning an outdoor recreation economy from an overlook on the Pine Mountain Trail near the town of Jenkins

Jenkins citizens have been envisioning the integration and transformation of the town’s former coal-mining facilities, and trail systems to rebuild the region—with trail corridors taking an even larger role in that transition.

KCC has been working with our land conservation allies and staff at the state Transportation Cabinet on leveraging new federal funding that is available through the Inflation Reduction Act to improve habitat connectivity and reduce animal-vehicle collisions, and the Jenkins project may end up including this work as well. The Wildlife Corridor Pilot Program is a program within the IRA that we have been promoting to bring additional support to these coal communities that are going through an economic transition and recovery, while also supporting the natural wildlife areas around these trails. We will keep you posted as this develops.

Preparing for the 2024 Budget Session

This field work around the state informs our preparations for the 2024 General Assembly, where we will be continuing our work in support of critical state land conservation programs. We are currently working with many of KCC’s partner groups who are focused on land conservation to map out our goals for the upcoming budget session.

Nuclear Discussions in Western Kentucky

After spending a week in the Eastern Kentucky, we headed to Paducah for a site tour of the cleanup progress happening at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant site, followed by a Nuclear Development forum as part of the research work related to Senate Joint Resolution 79.

The Gaseous Diffusion plant was one of three that previously produced enriched uranium, with other sites located at Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Portsmouth, Ohio.   

According to a brief provided to us for the site tour, the plant was the home of 60 years of uranium enrichment operations and support activities, where the plant generated hazardous, radioactive, mixed (both hazardous and radioactive), and nonchemical (sanitary) waste. The past operations also resulted in soil, groundwater, and surface water contamination.

In 1989, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) established the Environmental Management program to address the contamination and waste created by nuclear weapons production, research and testing activities from the Manhattan Project and the Cold War era, consistent with applicable environmental laws. On July 1, 1993, DOE leased the plant for production of nuclear fuel for commercial reactors. Under the terms of the lease, the company assumed responsibility for environmental compliance activities directly associated with uranium enrichment. There are contaminants on the site which are in various stages of remediation and cleanup including oils, various scrap metals, uranium-contaminated concrete, and other similar debris, as well as fields of cylinders stacked two and three levels high, which contained depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6). A total of 46,000 of these cylinders are planned for being converted to a more stable chemical form for reuse or disposal to reduce the risk to workers and the surrounding community. How this works is that the material is vaporized and converted to uranium oxide and hydrofluoric acid in a fluidized bed conversion unit. It is estimated, according to DOE, that this process to convert all the cylinders will take roughly thirty years.

So why is nuclear in the picture again? As part of the initiatives spurred by new federal funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the administration and US Department of Energy (DOE) laid out a plan for accelerating certain carbon-free or carbon-reducing technologies including Advanced Nuclear, Clean Hydrogen, Carbon Management, and Long-Duration Energy Storage.

 Kentucky Legislature- Interim Meetings Begin

So while it has been a fairly hectic time for KCC over the past few weeks, the information we have been gathering ‘in the field’ will be important as we prepare for the Interim Session committee meetings which start on June 5th. KCC will be monitoring all of the Interim committee meetings and will update you on their progress. In the meantime, now is a great time to visit with your lawmakers while they are in Frankfort. If you want to engage with your lawmakers, please contact us and we will be glad to support you during your visit.