Drinking Water Branch - The mission of the Drinking Water Branch is to protect public health by ensuring the provision of potable water.
          Compliance Evaluation - Compliance officers review information supplied by water suppliers to assure that they are meeting appropriate standards.
          Plans Review - The Plans Review Section provides technical review of engineering plans for public drinking water treatment plants. 
          Technical Assistance  - This program offers help to drinking water systems that may be experiencing problems with their treatment process.

Facilities Construction Branch - Issues construction permits and approvals for wastewater treatment plants and sewerline extensions. Prepares the Intended Use Plan for the state revolving fund. Also reviews regional wastewater facility plans.
          Municipal Planning - Assesses needs and develops a priority list for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, reviews facility plans for wastewater systems statewide and implements regionalization, issues municipal sewerline extension sanctions, agreed orders and demand letters and implements the Municipal Water Pollution Prevention Program.
          Municipal Design and Construction - Issues permits to construct municipal sewage treatment plants and provides engineering portions of the State Revolving Fund.
          Wastewater Facilities Review - Issues approval letters for sewer line construction, including related facilities, and issues permits to construct private sewage treatment plants other than single-family residential plants.

Field Operations Branch - Inspects water and wastewater treatment plants to monitor their operations and assure the safety of the public's drinking water and the state's streams, provides technical assistance, responds to complaints from citizens and responds to environmental emergencies and natural disasters involving land, air or water. 
          Citizen Complaints - For water-related complaints or non-emergency environmental problems that you think need to be investigated, contact the Field Operations Branch at (502) 564-3410.

Regional offices of the Division of Water are located in the following cities:

Bowling Green
Columbia
Florence
Frankfort
Hazard
London
Louisville
Madisonville
Morehead
Paducah

Groundwater Branch - Oversees the Wellhead Protection Program and Groundwater Protection Plans and trains and certifies water well drillers.
          Data Management and Support - Maintains the Division of Water's groundwater data base, provides technical information and reviews groundwater issues for the department.
          Technical Services - Maintains the Ambient Groundwater Monitoring Program and the Well Drillers Certification Program; provides technical groundwater expertise to federal, state and local agencies and organizations and the public to solve groundwater and water well problems and other groundwater issues; operates the Groundwater Branch's downhole video camera used for compliance monitoring and to solve water well and monitoring well construction problems; performs wellhead and spring delineations to assist in preparation of Wellhead Protection Plans and is developing karst atlas maps in partnership with the Kentucky Geological Survey.
          Ambient Groundwater Monitoring Program - Assesses ambient groundwater quality and nonpoint source pollution impacts on groundwater throughout Kentucky. This program was also designed to identify groundwater quality trends as well as existing and potential groundwater quality problems across the state.
          Well Drillers Certification Program - Certifies water well and monitoring well drillers, cooperates in training for well drillers and maintains a list of certified water well drillers.
          Permits - Responsible for Groundwater Protection Plans and Wellhead Protection Program.

Kentucky Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Branch - Issues permits to control the amount of pollutants that can be discharged to the surface waters of the commonwealth; coordinates the Wasteload Allocation program; reviews and approves construction and no-discharge (KNDOP) permits for wastewater, including industrial, sanitary and agricultural operations (AFOs).
          Municipal and Commercial
          Industrial
          Inventory and Data Management - See this Web site for access to permit application forms.
          Open Records Requests - To request access to files and records, please see the information on the linked Web page.

Resource Planning and Program Support - Provides long-term planning and daily administrative support for the division. Manages the budget, contracts and administrative functions associated with special appropriation grants and the Kentucky Inter-governmental Review Process required for projects applying for state and federal funding.
          Project Administration - Provides administrative portions of the State Revolving Fund, such as applications, payments procurement, user charge systems and sewer-use ordinances; works with the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority to administer the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.

Water Quality Branch - Provides oversight of all aspects of surface water quality in the Commonwealth.
          Standards and Specifications - Develops water quality standards and criteria; prepares Water Quality Report to Congress every two years as required under Section 305(b) of the Clean Water Act as well as other reports. See the 2002 Report to Congress on Water Quality.
          Ecological Support - Collects and analyzes physicochemical and biological data for rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands throughout the state and prepares summaries and reports of this information. See the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet's Publications Database for a full listing of Division of Water publications along with online access to them.
          Wild Rivers Program - Oversees Kentucky Wild Rivers, including producing management plans for each. These plans are available from the NREPC Publications Database.
          Total Maximum Daily Load Program - A TMDL, or Total Maximum Daily Load, is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet water quality standards and an allocation of that amount to the pollutant's sources. TMDLs are required for streams on the 303(d) List of waters that do not meet designated uses. 
          Water Quality Certification - Considers water quality certification for dredge and fill activities proposed within rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands in the state that require federal 404 permits.

Water Resources Branch - Oversees programs related to dams for reservoirs, floodplains and flooding.
          Floodplain Management - Has the primary responsibility for the approval or denial of proposed construction and other activities in the 100-year floodplain of all streams in the Commonwealth.
          Dam Safety and Floodplain Compliance - Shares responsibility with the Floodplain Management Section for the review and permitting of dams and hazardous impoundments. Performs construction inspections. Periodically inspects all dams on the inventory as long as they continue to operate.

Watershed Management Initiative - The watershed approach is a coordinating framework for environmental management that focuses public and private sector efforts on the highest priority problems within hydrologically defined geographic areas, taking into consideration both ground and surface water flow.

Kentucky River Basin
Licking River Basin and Ohio River Tributaries
Salt River Basin and Ohio River Tributaries
Green/Tradewater and Ohio Tributaries
Upper Cumberland River Basin
Four Rivers
Big/Little Sandy and Tygarts River Basins 

          Water Watch - Coordinates volunteer activities to help protect streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands.
          Nonpoint Source - Oversees federal Nonpoint Source Pollution Prevention grant projects. Develops and implements nonpoint source pollution control programs for surface and ground waters, including assessment, on-site evaluation, education and agency coordination activities. 
        Water Quantity Management - Is charged with administering the sections of KRS 151 pertaining to water withdrawal permitting and water supply planning. 
        Water Withdrawal Permitting - The water withdrawal program governs all withdrawals greater than 10,000 gallons per day from any surface or groundwater source, with the exception of water required for domestic or agricultural purposes and for steam-powered electrical generating plants. 
         Water Supply Planning - The water supply planning program was legislated following the drought of 1988. The purpose of this planning process is to assess the current and future water needs of each county and to develop alternative water supplies so that water needs will be met.