Goals
The Air Quality Program’s goals are to maintain ambient air quality standards, to protect the quality of the air in areas of the state that have air cleaner than the standards, and to implement air quality rules and regulations.
To fulfill these goals, the Department develops and enforces air quality laws and regulations so that air pollution can be kept at low levels. By pursuing these goals NDEE is confident that public health and the environment will be adequately protected.
The National "Standards"
The Nebraska air regulations are primarily based on regulations developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address the Clean Air Act requirements. The Clean Air Act gives the EPA authority to establish national ambient air quality standards, or NAAQS.
Definition
Ambient air is the air humans have access to outdoors and doesn’t include air on private property.
The national standards are based on each pollutant’s effects on our health and environment. The pollutants covered by NAAQS are termed criteria pollutants because their standards are based on criteria specific to each of them. There are NAAQS for particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter, particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and lead.
The EPA also has the authority to regulate toxic or hazardous air pollutants not covered by NAAQS. EPA has established national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants. These standards establish emission limits or control technology requirements for specific source categories or industries.
Nebraska Standards
Before Nebraska can implement and enforce EPA’s laws, air quality regulations must be developed for the state. Our authority to develop regulations comes from the Clean Air Act and the Nebraska Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).
The state may develop and enforce rules that are more stringent than federal laws and regulations but cannot make rules that are less stringent.
Nebraska air quality regulations are found in Title 129 of the Nebraska Administrative Code.
Air Quality Programs
The Air Quality Program fulfills these objectives through implementing various programs. We operate an extensive ambient air monitoring program to measure the ambient air quality and determine if we are achieving and maintaining the NAAQS.
New and revised regulations
The Program Planning and Development Unit develops and proposes new and revised regulations to the Environmental Quality Council. Title 129 is updated regularly to keep up with ever changing federal regulations.
Air quality permits
Air quality permits are the primary tool we use to implement the air quality regulations. Before businesses construct a unit that emits regulated pollutants, they have to determine if the potential emissions from that unit will exceed the thresholds in the Nebraska air quality regulations. If they do, then they’ll need a construction permit.
Operating permits
We also issue operating permits based on a source’s level of emissions. An operating permit will incorporate all of a source’s requirements into one permit, including all construction permit limitations and federal regulations. Operating permits usually require additional monitoring, stack testing, reporting, and recordkeeping.
Inspections & more
Other parts of our unit ensure compliance with air permits and regulations by conducting inspections, providing assistance and outreach, responding to complaints, verifying stack test data, gathering actual emissions data annually, and, when necessary, carrying out enforcement actions
NDEE main office & field offices
NDEE is headquartered in Lincoln and has regional field offices located throughout the state. Our field offices provide better public access to NDEE, reduce response time to citizen complaints, and allow the agency to have a better understanding of local issues. Our field office staff conduct compliance inspections, complaint investigations, sampling, monitoring, and outreach activities for almost all of our regulatory programs.
Information about local air programs
Three local agencies -- the Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department, the Omaha Air Quality Control, and the Douglas County Health Department, have accepted through contract with the NDEE, responsibility for various facets of the program. These responsibilities include air quality monitoring, planning, permitting and enforcement within their areas of jurisdiction.
Lancaster County Health Department
The Lancaster County Health Department’s website is https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/City/Departments/Health-Department* and the phone number is (402) 441-8040.
Omaha
The City of Omaha’s website is https://www.cityofomaha.org/ * and the air program’s number is (402) 444-6015.
For information about the Douglas county ambient air monitoring, you can contact them at (402) 444-6162.
More information
Air Quality Publications, Forms, & Applications
Title 129 – Air Quality Regulations
Emission Fee Appropriations Report
Subscribe to the AirNews Listserv
DRAFT - Air Program White Papers Open for Feedback until July 16th
Air Compendium
As part of its efforts for continuous improvement, NDEE has developed a Compendium consolidating various historical policies and regulatory decisions made by NDEE into one comprehensive archive accessible to the regulated community. Compendium entries will be continually updated as more policies are developed and as more regulatory decisions are made.
Currently, the Compendium contains air quality related information.
The Compendium is located
* This webpage contains links to Non-NDEE websites, these links will open in a new tab or window