On April 8, 2016, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) received a Notice of Intent from Heritage Disposal and Storage to locate a hazardous waste incinerator at their current property located at 345 So. 80th Road, Alda. The site is on the former Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant property west of Grand Island. Heritage intends to install the incinerator to dispose of Department of Defense smoke grenades and related materials.

Before Heritage can submit permit applications to NDEQ, they must go through a local siting process. State laws regarding proposed new hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities require that state and local entities appoint a 12-member Site Review Committee. The Committee will conduct meetings and submit a report to NDEQ before Heritage can submit permit applications to the state.

Six members of the Committee are appointed by the NDEQ Director and will represent: environment, academic, medical, industry, public interest and community planning. The remaining six members will be local residents living within five miles of the proposed facility. Four of these members are appointed by the Hall County Board, one member by the City of Grand Island and one member by the Village of Alda.

The Site Review Committee is not a decision-making body. The purpose of the Committee is to provide for early public involvement in the consideration of the proposed facility, and to develop a report to be submitted to NDEQ.

The first Committee meeting is tentatively scheduled for 6:30 p.m. April 25th at the Alda Community Center. All Committee meetings will be open to the public. Information regarding the Heritage project, including the list of members appointed to the committee and upcoming meeting dates, will be posted on NDEQ’s web site at http://deq.ne.gov/NDEQProg.nsf/OnWeb/Heritage.

After the Site Review Committee presents its report to the Director, Heritage will then submit its application package to NDEQ. NDEQ will review the application package to ensure it is complete and submit the applications, along with the Site Review Committee report, to the Hall County Board. The Hall County Board will hold a hearing within 45 days of receiving the package to indicate its approval or denial of the proposal. If the Board agrees with the proposal, NDEQ will begin technical review of the application. If the Hall County Board denies the proposal, NDEQ will not review the application.