Water News Archive

Emergency Drinking Water Supply

Nebraska's abundant domestic water supply is generally taken for granted. However some situations can reduce the availability of safe drinking water, including tornadoes, floods, winter storms, or even earthquakes. Such disasters may interrupt the water supply for only a few hours or up to several days. In these situations an emergency water supply is helpful, if not essential.

Odor Footprint Tool

The Odor Footprint Tool (OFT) estimates the frequency of annoying odor events around an existing or proposed livestock facility and uses this information to determine minimum separation distances that should be maintained around those facilities and to help in siting decisions.

Low Impact Development

The key premise of low impact development (LID) is to allow natural systems to manage stormwater when and wherever possible.  LID takes advantage of existing natural features and also designs and constructs systems to imitate natural processes, for example, green roofs, bioretention gardens, and permeable pavement. 

Mortality Management

In Nebraska, routine livestock mortalities can be legally disposed of in five different ways: burial, incineration, composting, rendering, and disposal in a landfill. Regardless of which method is used, it is important to dispose of the animal or animals within 24 hours of death, or sooner if possible. When choosing a mortality disposal method, cost, labor input, and personal preferences usually dictate an individual’s decision.

Wastewater - What Is It?

Wastewater comes from ordinary living processes: bathing, toilet flushing, laundry, dishwashing, etc. It comes from residential and domestic sources.

Project Background

The Nebraska Ag Water Management Network (NAWMN, Irmak (2005)) project is designed for encouraging the adoption of newer technologies that will enable farmers to use water and energy resources associated with irrigated crop production efficiently.

Professional trainings and public programs

UNL Extension presents trainings for water well professionals as part of their CEU requirements. UNL Extension also conduces educational sessions at professional conferences and seminars. Extension also educates both urban and rural residents to increase understanding of good management of drinking water supplies. Nitrate, arsenic and uranium are identified as some of the top concerns for water supplies. These issues and more are the subjects of UNL Extension's educational efforts.

Mortality Composting

Mortalities are an unfortunate reality for livestock operations. Whether they’re caused by disease or natural disaster, losses of livestock do occur and these mortalities must be managed responsibly. The state of Nebraska allows for disposal of dead animals via several methods including burial, rendering, incineration, composting, and landfilling.

Common Pollutant Types

Sediment (sand, silt, and clay particles): Bare spots in lawns and gardens, lawn and landscape renovation projects, sloping areas, soil washed from vehicles, roof tops and other hard surfaces like driveways, pond or stream bank erosion, home construction.

Soil Biological Life

While tillage has been used to prepare a seedbed, it also destroys the existing root structures in the soil and some of the soil's biological life. Without this biological life, soil structure suffers and many of the nutrients are not as available for crop uptake.

Introduction to Watersheds

Everyone lives in a watershed. A watershed is the land area that contributes water to a location, usually a stream, pond, lake or river. Everything that we do on the surface of our watershed impacts the water quality of our streams, wetlands, ponds, lakes and rivers. What happens in one locality affects other downstream areas.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Algae? Algae are defined as simple rootless plants that grow in bodies of water relative to the amount of nutrients available. Blue-Green Algae or Cyanobacteria:

Understanding US EPA Regulations

Several federal regulations may impact animal producers and their operations including the Clean Water Act and provisions that relate to NPDES permits. The federal EPA statutes that have relevance to animal agriculture are summarized at EPA's Agricultural Law Web site.

Landscape Design Practices

Install rain gardens in locations where they catch and temporarily hold rainwater. Use natural drainage patterns, site grading, berms (planted earth mounds) or other methods to channel rainwater away from impervious surfaces (i.e. pavement) onto planted areas such as grass swales, filter strips, or rain gardens. Plant and maintain healthy plant cover, especially on slopes to stabilize the soil and prevent erosion. Select plants adapted to the site and maintenance level.

Nebraska Extension Publications on Pesticides

Pesticide Management for Water Quality Protection in the Midwest Cleaning Pesticide Application Equipment Rinsing Pesticide Containers

Watershed Planning & Management

Watershed planning and management comprise an approach to protecting water quality and quantity that focuses on the whole watershed. This approach is necessary due to the nature of polluted runoff, which in most watersheds is the biggest contributor to water pollution. Polluted runoff is a caused by a variety of land use activities including development, transportation and agriculture, and may originate anywhere in the watershed. Watershed planning and management involves a number of activities including:

Pond Management Tool

A pond is a delicate aquatic ecosystem where multiple interactions affect one another. Knowing the surface area and volume of a pond is critical information to making proper pond management decisions about chemical dose, evaporation/filling rates, fish stocking rates, etc. Inaccurate measurements of area or volume can lead to ineffective aquatic plant management via under dosing, or worse, overdosing. Overdosing can remove too much plant biomass causing oxygen depletion and can potentially lead to fish kills.

Do I Need a Permit?

In Nebraska, an inspection by an NDEQ representative will provide the final determination of whether or not a livestock or poultry operation will need a permit.

Publications and Resources

Nebraska Extension Educators and Specialists have developed many resources to help you use water more efficiently and help keep it clean. Nebraska Extension has also developed materials to help youth learn about water and how to save it and keep it clean. Read on for a listing of all of these great resources for your landscape

Pesticide Leaching & Runoff Management

Runoff and/or leaching can occur when pesticides are carried off the application site into water such as rivers, lakes and streams, wells, storm sewers, or into groundwater. Runoff/leaching can occur when too much pesticide is applied or is spilled on the surface, too much rainwater or irrigation water occurs in a short period of time, or highly water soluble pesticides are used. To gain a better understanding of how, where and why water runs off and how to prevent pollution read the following UNL publications: