Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality Director Mike Linder announced today that the state is awarding more than $2.5 million to support 126 tire recycling and cleanup projects across the state.

"Nebraskans pay a $1 fee for every new tire they purchase," said Linder. "These grants put that money into use locally to help manage scrap tires. We like to see the highest possible beneficial use of these old tires, and these projects help us reach that goal."

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) is inviting proposals for source water protection projects. Approximately $138,000 in grant funding is available to units and subunits of government, education institutions, and non-profit organizations to carry out projects that will help protect the state’s drinking water sources.

The state has issued a health alert for toxic blue-green algae at Rockford Lake near Holmesville in Gage County. This is the first health alert issued for the 2009 season. Weekly sampling has been conducted at 46 public lakes in Nebraska since the beginning of May.

The state has issued a health alert for toxic blue-green algae for Pawnee Reservoir in Lancaster County, and an alert continues at Rockford Lake in Gage County, which was first placed on alert last week.

The State has discontinued a health alert for toxic blue-green algae for Pawnee Reservoir in Lancaster County, after the lake had two consecutive weeks of low readings for toxic blue-green algae. There currently are no health alerts at any of the 46 public lakes where the State is conducting weekly sampling. An alert which had been issued for Rockford Lake in Gage County ended last week.

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) is announcing an extension of the deadline for public and private organizations to submit proposals for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant awards for diesel emission reduction activities. The new deadline for submitting proposals is 4:00 p.m. CDT July 31, 2009. NDEQ is extending the deadline to give potential applicants additional time to develop grant proposals.

July 1, 2009 -- The annual report summarizing Nebraska's ambient air quality, based on 2008 ambient air quality monitoring results, is now available on this web site. Go to
Nebraska Air Quality 2008

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality Director Mike Linder today announced the awarding of $2,027,679 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 over $2.5 million for projects related to tire recycling were previously announced in May.

The state has issued a health alert for toxic blue-green algae at Rockford Lake near Holmesville in Gage County.

Samples taken earlier this week at Rockford Lake 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.)

The state is continuing a health alert for toxic blue-green algae for Rockford Lake in Gage County, which was first placed on alert last week.

Although levels were below the threshold at Rockford Lake this week, a health alert remains in effect. Lakes that are on health alert must have two consecutive weeks of readings below 20 ppb before the alert is removed.