The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) has completed the draft mitigation plan for Nebraska’s portion of funds from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust (VW Trust) and is making it available online for public review. Comments are being accepted through Dec. 31, 2017.

May 28, 2015 -- The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) will host a second outreach meeting to discuss a proposal to amend Title 132 – Integrated Solid Waste Management Regulations. The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. June 17 at the second floor of the Atrium building, 1200 ‘N’ St., Lincoln, Suite 206. Those who are not able to attend the meeting in person may participate by telephone conference call at (888) 820-1398. Please connect prior to 2 p.m. and enter attendee code 9932065# when prompted.

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality Director Jim Macy announced today that the state is awarding $2.01 million to support 126 tire recycling and cleanup projects across the state.

Nebraskans generate more than one and a half million scrap tires each year, about one tire for every person in the state. The grants are part of NDEQ’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Grants program, and are funded by a $1 fee on new tires purchased in Nebraska.

NDEQ is restructuring and standardizing Conditions I and II in air quality construction permits (CP), and air quality operating permits (OP). These changes are intended to unify permit conditions and streamline the CP and OP permitting processes.

NDEQ had solicited comments from interested parties in November and has drafted revisions based on those comments. The revised drafts are located at the bottom of this page.

June 17, 2015 – The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) has announced that the deadline for submitting 2015 Litter Reduction and Recycling Incentive Grant applications is 4:00 p.m. CDT August 5, 2015. Below is a link to the online application process:

Litter Reduction and Recycling Incentive Grant Application Process

LINCOLN – Today, Governor Ricketts applauded news that the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) and the City of Lincoln have developed an integrated online system to streamline the process for Lincoln applicants to apply for and receive construction stormwater permits.

The state has issued a health alert for toxic blue-green algae at Sutherland Reservoir in Lincoln County. This is the first health alert issued in the 2015 recreational season. Weekly sampling has been conducted at 50 public lakes in Nebraska since the beginning of May.

December 15, 2017 -- The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality’s 2017 Clean Diesel Rebate Program has extended the application deadline for rebates for two types of rebates – diesel refuse truck replacements, and agricultural irrigation pump diesel engine replacements. The deadline for these two categories has been extended to February 15, 2018. The application deadline for a third category, diesel school bus replacements, ended Dec. 15, 2017.

The state has discontinued a health alert for toxic blue-green algae at Sutherland Reservoir in Lincoln County.

An alert was originally issued at the lake on July 2 after samples were above the state’s health alert threshold of 20 parts per billion of microcystin (a toxin released by certain strains of blue-green algae.) However, samples taken the two following weeks were below the threshold, so the alert has been discontinued.

There are currently no health alerts for toxic algae in Nebraska.

December 21, 2017 – Applications for 2018 Waste Reduction and Recycling Grants will be available online from January 3, 2018 through 4 p.m. CST February 1, 2018. Applications must be submitted using the online process.

For more information about the Waste Reduction and Recycling Grant application process, go to /forms/publications-grants-forms/was066.