Accomplishments
- NDEE’s Planning and Aid Division applied for several federal grant programs throughout the month of May, including: the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant ($3 million) to develop climate action plans for the state; the Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid Formula Grants ($10.8 million) to support grid improvement projects; the State Energy Program Revolving Loan Fund ($5.6 million) to support energy efficiency measures in public buildings, especially K-12 schools; and the Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grant ($600,000) to conduct a state-wide waste characterization study.
- The EPA notified NDEE that Nebraska has zero public water systems (PWSs) listed as priority systems under its Enforcement Targeting Tool (ETT). The ETT is how the EPA measures non-compliance for PWSs based on a scoring metric. This is the third time no Nebraska system has been listed on the ETT, and Nebraska is one of four states that did not have any priority systems this quarter.
- NDEE’s Air and Waste compliance teams met with the State Fire Marshal to discuss collaboration on communicating with fire chiefs about requirements for training burns and regulations for open burn permits. NDEE plans to work with the State Fire Marshal’s office and the Department of Health and Human Services to create a training video that outlines requirements to hold a training burn.
- NDEE’s air team held a public hearing in North Platte regarding the Sustainable Beef project’s air construction permit.
- Trained Newman Grove, Lakeview, and Schuyler High School teacher and student representatives in the collection and analysis of E. coli samples collected from Shell Creek and its tributaries.
- NDEE’s Emergency Response Section had a booth at Nebraska Fire School May 18-20, where staff answered questions and provided guidance documents to attendees.
Miscellaneous
- NDEE is working to revise its agreement with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture to gain regulatory authority when overseeing the environmental safety program, specifically food evaluations in schools and childcare facilities.
- CAFO general permit was issued April 27, 2023. Prior to signing the permit, the director administratively extended permittees’ coverage until their application was processed. Currently, NDEE has received over one hundred applications, which the NPDES and State Permits Section is reviewing and processing.
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