{"id":31433,"date":"2022-02-04T13:21:44","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T19:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31433"},"modified":"2022-02-04T13:21:44","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T19:21:44","slug":"additional-authority-for-environmental-regulator-proposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31433","title":{"rendered":"Additional authority for environmental regulator proposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Natural Resources Committee heard testimony Feb. 3 on a bill intended to give a state agency the ability to respond more quickly to the release of pollution.

\"Sen.
Sen. Bruce Bostelman<\/figcaption><\/figure> <\/p>\n

LB1102, introduced by Sen. Bruce Bostelman of Brainard, would authorize the director of the state Department of Environment and Energy to issue an order requiring a person responsible for releasing a pollutant to clean it up or to take action to clean it up if the responsible person fails or refuses to do so. <\/p>\n

If the state responds to a release, the responsible person would be liable to the state for its cleanup costs, Bostelman said, which would become a lien on any real property owned by the responsible person and subject to or affected by the cleanup. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill helps to ensure that responsible parties pay for cleanups rather than Nebraska taxpayers,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

LB1102 also would authorize the director to issue a cease and desist order if the director finds that any person has performed or failed to perform any act that presents harm to the environment. <\/p>\n

Jim Macy, director of the department, testified in support of the bill. He said cease and desist orders are intended to be used against \u201cbad actors\u201d whose current practices break the law and pose a substantial risk of harm to the environment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe cease and desist order is one way to put a quick stop to ongoing significant pollution events and order compliance actions that may continue beyond abating the immediate emergency,\u201d Macy said. <\/p>\n

Al Davis testified in support of LB1102 on behalf of the Nebraska chapter of the Sierra Club. He said the Sierra Club supports the bill\u2019s framework but questions whether it would prevent a future release of pollution like the one at the AltEn ethanol plant near Mead. <\/p>\n

Davis said the proposal would give the director \u201csignificant latitude\u201d to regulate releases of pollution but would not require the director to take action against a violator. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe use of permissive language causes a lack of trust among the environmental community because we have seen NDEE drag their feet and slow-walk compliance at AltEn and elsewhere,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Amy Svoboda testified in opposition to the bill. She said it contains a \u201cgood framework\u201d but needs several changes to ensure that the department can respond effectively to releases of pollutants. <\/p>\n

Among those are a clearer cleanup standard and a more precise definition of who is responsible for a release, Svoboda said. <\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on LB1102.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Natural Resources Committee heard testimony Feb. 3 on a bill intended to give a state agency the ability to respond more quickly to the release of pollution. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[183],"class_list":["post-31433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-resources","tag-sen-bruce-bostelman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/LB1102Bostelman2-3-22a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31433"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31438,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31433\/revisions\/31438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}