Water News Archive

Nebraska Extension, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, and Game and Parks again have partnered to offer a series of pond and lake management introductory workshops.  These workshops are free and open to everyone who makes decisions for and about lakes and ponds or anyone who wants to learn more about protecting them.  If you’ve ever had an algae bloom, fish kill, murky water, or just want to know what’s going on in the lake, this workshop is for you.  All 2017 workshops are focused on sandpit lakes.

The 2017 Spring Stormwater Symposium brought together professionals from both public and private sectors to learn from local, regional and national experts. The symposium will focused on examples of stormwater program funding and management, and took an in-depth look into the life cycle of a successful stormwater management project.

Training for Extension professionals, educators and technical service providers to conduct programs and course work on nutrient and manure management and land use within riparian ecosystems.

Soil is much more than the individual particles of sand, silt, and clay. Ideally, the soil should be one-half solid materials (sand, silt, clay, nutrients, minerals, organic materials, and biological life) and one-half pore space (half of that containing water and the other half being air space). Biological life and organic matter provide the "glues" to create soil aggregates, forming soil structure.

Contaminants such as gases, minerals, bacteria, metals, and other chemicals suspended or dissolved in drinking water can affect your health and influence the quality of your water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established limits, or standards, on the concentration of certain drinking water contaminants allowed in public water supplies.

What is stormwater? It's water from rain or melting snow. Watch the video and learn about rain water runoff and why it can be a problem.

Shoreline and streambank protection is critical to maintaining water quality in streams, rivers and lakes. Degraded shorelines around lakes and along stream banks increase the likelihood of pollutants such as sediments and nutrients reaching the water and contributing to decreased water quality. Implementing best management practices in and around lakes and along streams can greatly reduce water quality problems.

Do you have trees growing right in the middle of your lawn? Do you swear under your breath every time you mow, having to trim around them and practice some fancy footwork trying to maneuver the mower around the trunk? If so, perhaps it's time to redesign your landscape, separating the grass and all of the other plants. If you are building a new home, or moving to one with little or no landscaping, you can avoid this maintenance nightmare by simply thinking of turf as a part of the landscape unto itself.

With the forecast of another dry year, more people are inquiring about reusing their graywater to water their plants or lawn with. It is not legal in Nebraska to discharge untreated graywater. Wastewater in Nebraska is comprised of graywater and blackwater. Graywater is defined in Nebraska Onsite Wastewater Regulations as water that has been used for bathing, laundering clothes, and sink waste that is not kitchen sink waste. Blackwater is water that carries off waste from toilets, urinals, and kitchen sinks.

Nonpoint source or runoff pollution is harmful to the water quality of our lakes, ponds, and streams. Many of our daily activities contribute to runoff pollution leaving our property and harming our lakes, ponds, and streams. Water quality protection practices help to reduce runoff pollution and protect our water resources.

The Animal Feeding Operation, also called the Livestock Producer Environmental Assistance Project (LPEAP), provides financial and technical assistance to small livestock producers who are concerned about protecting water quality and preserving the environment, but are exempt from current regulatory requirements. The project purpose is to construct on-farm demonstration sites that minimize environmental risk using new concepts and alternative technologies. All demonstration projects are available for viewing by all producers.

Water should never be applied at a rate faster than it can be absorbed by the soil. Soil properties that govern water infiltration (movement of water into the soil) are texture and structure.