Focus On Water
2007 Source Water Protection Projects


Project Name: Upstream Drainage Renovation
Project Sponsor
: Village of Edgar
Award Amount
: $7,000
  • Improve water drainage in the Village of Edgar wellhead protection area.


Project Name: Best Management Practices for Valparaiso
Project Sponsor:
Lower Platte South NRD
Award Amount:
$46,000
  • Offer cost-share programs for best management practices that are known to reduce the amount of nitrate-nitrogen lost to leaching and over application.


Project Name: Community-based Wellhead Protection Planning
Project Sponsor:
Nebraska Rural Water Association
Award Amount:
$45,250
  • Secure three to five rural communities to participate in the community-based planning process in the development of their Wellhead Area Management Plan.
  • Communities will complete a resources inventory to determine land uses in the wellhead protection area and identify effective management practices acceptable to property owners.
  • Communities will complete or revise a contaminant source inventory with GPS location of each potential point source of contamination.
  • Communities will prepare and submit an application for funding to implement the Wellhead Area Management Plan.


Project Name: Source Water Protection and Land Use Planning
Project Sponsor:
The Groundwater Foundation
Award Amount:
$13,375
  • To inform and educate planning and zoning professionals and the local decision makers they serve so they recognize source water protection as a vital part of local land use planning.
  • To increase the demand for local land use planning and zoning in Nebraska to protect source water.
  • To initiate and facilitate productive working relationships between source water protection advocates and Nebraska’s planning community.


Project Name: From the Ground Down - Pharmaceutical Take-Back Program
Project Sponsor:
Two Rivers Public Health Department
Award Amount:
$25,000
  • Involve the 7 county region (Buffalo, Dawson, Kearney, Phelps, Franklin, Gosper and Harlan Counties) in a program of education and action on protecting source water.
  • Form a Water Task Force and identify three specific needs/problems/areas of concern to be addressed by this program.
  • Make available to the public, a nitrate water testing system with a goal of testing 150 wells in the two year grant period.
  • Sponsor six Take-Back programs for pharmaceuticals.
  • Educate public using billboards, public service announcements and other advertising, presentations, educational displays, brochures and reminder literature


Project Name: Protect our Water for Tomorrow
Project Sponsor:
Beaver Lake Association
Award Amount:
$38,516
  • Reduce pollution inputs to Beaver Lake by installing a dam upstream from the lake on a tributary that feeds the lake.


Project Name: Implementing Source Water Protection in a Rural Wellhead Protection Area
Project Sponsor:
City of Beatrice
Award Amount:
$23,500
  • Educate agricultural producers in the wellhead protection area, especially in the areas with a very high nitrate level, on how to effectively use the existing nitrate in the groundwater.
  • Educate urban residents on how to effectively conserve water, especially during peak demand times.
  • To increase security at the North farm well field by adding security fencing on the south and east sides.


Project Name: Cash for Grass - Replacing Irrigated Blue Grass Lawn with Buffalo Grass
Project Sponsor:
Upper Niobrara White Natural Resources District
Award Amount:
$6,500
  • Implement water conservation via a cost-share program that funds the installation of Legacy Buffalograss in the Alliance community.