The state has issued a health alert for toxic blue-green algae at Red Willow Reservoir in Frontier County, and an alert continues at Johnson Lake in Gosper County, which was first placed on alert last week. A health alert has ended at Swan Creek Lake 5A near Tobias in Saline County.

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality Director Mike Linder today announced the awarding of $1,442,902 in grants for waste reduction and recycling projects. The grants are available through the Waste Reduction and Recycling Incentive Grant Fund. This fund is generated by a fee on solid waste disposed of in landfills (disposal fee), an annual retail business sales fee (business fee), and a fee assessed on the sale of new tires for motor vehicles (tire fee). Tire fee grants totaling $1 million for projects related to tire recycling were previously announced in June.

The state has discontinued a health alert for toxic blue-green algae at Johnson Lake in Gosper County, after the lake had two consecutive weeks of low readings for toxic blue-green algae.

The state has discontinued a health alert for toxic blue-green algae at Red Willow Reservoir in Gosper County, after the lake had two consecutive weeks of low readings for toxic blue-green algae. This week, there are no health alerts in effect at any of the 46 public lakes that are tested weekly by the state.

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has scheduled a public hearing regarding a proposal to exempt a portion of the Chadron Aquifer north of Crawford. This portion of the aquifer is associated with a proposed expansion area for the Crow Butte Resources (CBR) uranium mining facility. The proposed exemption would prevent that designated area of the aquifer from being used as a drinking water source in the future.

The artwork of 13 Nebraska students will be featured in the 2011 “Nebraska: Don’t Waste It!” environmental calendar. The statewide contest is sponsored by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) and focuses on the importance of waste reduction, recycling and litter cleanup.

The state has issued a health alert for toxic blue-green algae at Merritt Reservoir in Cherry County. This is the only health alert currently in effect in the state, based on weekly sampling of 46 public lakes across Nebraska.

Samples taken earlier this week at Merritt Reservoir were above the state’s health alert threshold of 20 parts per billion (ppb) of total Microcystins (a toxin released by certain strains of blue-green algae.) Lakes that are on health alert must have two consecutive weeks of readings below the threshold before the alert is discontinued.

The state has issued health alerts for toxic blue-green algae at Kirkman’s Cove near Humboldt and Red Willow Lake near McCook. An alert continues at Merritt Reservoir in Cherry County, which first went on alert last week.

Samples taken earlier this week at the three lakes were above the state’s health alert threshold of 20 parts per billion (ppb) of total Microcystins (a toxin released by certain strains of blue-green algae.) Lakes that are on health alert must have two consecutive weeks of readings below the threshold before the alert is discontinued.

The state has issued a health alert for toxic blue-green algae at Willow Creek Lake near Pierce. Alerts continue for Kirkman’s Cove near Humboldt, Red Willow Reservoir near McCook and Merritt Reservoir in Cherry County.

Health alerts will continue over the Labor Day weekend for Willow Creek Lake near Pierce and Red Willow Reservoir near McCook. Alerts have ended at Kirkman’s Cove near Humboldt and Merritt Reservoir in Cherry County.