Back to Goal 22From Measures and Milestones 2002
p. 64-65, published 2002
Public awareness and understanding of environmental issues is key to timely, appropriate, and effective responses to problems. Citizens do not place a high value on this goal, ranking it third from the bottom, but they see much progress.
Table 1: Where Citizens Think We Stand
A 1999 citizen survey created by the Kentucky Environmental Education Council reported that while 61 percent of those surveyed know that solar energy and trees are renewable resources, a full 39 percent think coal, oil, iron, and other metals are also renewable resources. While 49 percent correctly identified “biodiversity” as the many different types of plants and animals, another 40 percent think it is the many differing opinions on environmental issues. Importantly, 96 percent believed environmental education should be taught in schools, almost exactly the same percentage reported in nationwide polls on environmental education.
Figure 1: Percentage of Kentuckians Who Correctly Answered Questions on Environmental Topics
There are numerous sources of air pollution, including point (i.e., smokestack), mobile (i.e., automobile and off-highway vehicle exhaust), and area sources (i.e., small paint shops, gas stations, open burning) in Kentucky. All areas of the state currently meet the national ambient air quality standard for all of the criteria pollutants.
Figure 2: Concentrations of Air Pollutants, Kentucky, 1980-1999
The quality of Kentucky’s estimated 89,431 miles of waterways varies from severely degraded to clean enough for swimming, fishing, or use as a drinking water source. Disease-carrying pathogens, often associated with untreated or poorly treated animal and human waste, remain the principal pollutant, impairing 31 percent of the stream miles monitored.
Figure 3: Percentage of Monitored Waterways Impacted by Pollution
Most of the toxic chemicals generated by Kentucky industries are managed at the site. However, during 1999, 14 percent or 100.8 million pounds of the 714.8 million pounds generated were released to Kentucky’s environment. A majority of the toxic releases (65 percent) occurred in 10 counties. Ten companies accounted for 51 percent (51.3 million pounds) of the toxic chemical releases. Between 1997 and 1999, air releases increased 117 percent, land releases increased 434 percent, and toxic chemical releases to waterways increased fourfold, due to the addition of seven new reporting industries.
Figure 4: Toxic Releases to Kentucky’s Environment, Part I
Figure 5: Toxic Releases to Kentucky’s Environment, Part II
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