Technically Speaking

This Sounds Like Déjà vu All Over Again!

By Duane Gangwish

One more year of making up  *&^%!” read the inside of a recent birthday card my favorite son-in-law, Nick, gave to me. Although some may categorize the issues below as *&^%, I assure you they are serious matters begging the attention of Nebraska Cattlemen members. Month by month, year by year we find ourselves in challenging times, facing issues that require long-term vision and a willingness to be criticized for making hard choices.

Water

Governor Heinemann often refers to water as “the issue of the decade.” I can assure you that water is one of the primary topics of conversation at almost every in-state gathering I have attended in the last two months. Nebraska Cattlemen members have been hard at work to be a part of the solution. Members and staff have met with key senators in the water debate involving the Republican River Basin Compact and the Platte River Accord. Several conference calls and three face-to-face meetings culminated with supportive testimony by Levi Whipps (Max) on Sen. Tom Carlson’s bill (LB 458) to remove invasive and non-beneficial vegetation from riparian areas and Jerry Kuenning’s (Imperial) testimony opposing Sen. Mark Christensen’s bill (LB 701), which would reduce surface water use in the Republican River Basin by 25 percent and have the Legislature establish basin-wide allocations for groundwater. Please don’t stop reading there and think that it was that simple. The implementation of either bill would be very complex, costly and take time. It is likely that components of the two bills will be combined into one bill for consideration on the floor of the Legislature. This debate may very well craft water policy for decades to come. Your organization is in the fray on your behalf. If you would like regular updates on this issue, AND your fair share dues are paid up, give our office a call and ask to have your email address added to the Water News list.

Odor

The Nebraska Supreme Court recently remanded a case back to the Knox County District Court to consider further whether a feedlot was a nuisance or not. In their ruling the Supreme Court held that, “The right to have the air floating over one’s premises free from noxious and unnatural impurities is a right as absolute as the right to the soil itself.”  This is an ominous storm cloud that NC leadership will be keeping a close eye on.

Fishing and Swimming

Sen. Don Preister introduced LB 704, which received a hearing on March 8. The bill would create the Fishable and Swimmable Waters Act, create a 14-member Surface Water Quality Blue Ribbon Task Force and ask for an appropriation of $15 million over two years to implement the act. The bill states, “It is declared to be the policy of the State of Nebraska, and the purpose of the act, to ensure that all Nebraska streams lakes and public reservoirs meet state water quality standards and federal Clean Water Act standards by or before Jan. 1, 2027.”

To oppose the bill was almost like talking trash about your mother, baseball and apple pie. It is a bit interesting however to have hearings within seven days of each other that talk about drought-induced dry streams that could be required to be both fishable and swimmable. The bill has some glaring technical flaws in the fact that it requires “every” stream segment, lake or public reservoir to meet both Nebraska surface-water quality standards and federal Clean Water Act standards without regard to their natural state. The bill calls for DEQ to establish, by Jan. 1, 2011, TMDLs for every stream, lake and public reservoir that failed to meet Nebraska surface water quality standards as of Jan. 1, 2007. The title of the bill implies, as does the Statement of Intent, that by spending $15 million all the streams, rivers, lakes and reservoirs would have to be clean. A TMDL however merely determines the level of pollutant load that is allowable; it is not a method or a means to remediation. It is unclear how many miles of sandhills streams may need to be “managed,” let alone the cost of evaluating their current status. The bill had 10 proponents, two opponents (including NC) and two testifying neutral, and will not likely come out of committee.

Same Song, Verse 37

You must be an Animal Feeding Operation (AFO) before you become subject to a majority of the requirements of Title 130.

In order to be an AFO, you must:

a) confine animals for more than [ANY] 45 days in a year, AND

b) not maintain permanent vegetation or crop residue (in the area of confinement while the animals are confined – Duane’s paraphrase)

I get asked hundreds of different ways, but the answer is the same – 45 days and NO permanent vegetation or crop residue. I get asked whether weeds are permanent vegetation, how many corn stalks are considered “enough,” or “what if I just background calves,” and wiggle questions about cutting back to 999.5 head.

The bottom line is it is a two-part question: 1) length of confinement and groundcover and 2) size. Size does not come into play until after you make the first cut regarding length of confinement and groundcover. When you gather calves and feed (background) them for 60 or 90 days, you may not be an AFO if you always maintain permanent vegetation or crop residue, but if there is not any groundcover, you only have 45 days before you become an AFO and are subject to more regulations.

The bigger question you should be asking yourself, if you have not seen a DEQ inspector on your place in the last two or three years is, did you ever request an inspection? Nebraska Cattlemen prioritized LB 677 this year that would allow operations that became an AFO by rule (changes in definition only) to request an inspection without being assessed late fees. The late fees range from between $5,300 and $16,200 as of April 2007. At the time I am writing this article, I am unsure what the final bill will look like when it hits the floor or even whether it will make it all the way to the end of the snake. If the bill is not adopted, the late fees will apply to everyone and will continue to grow at the rate of either $50 or $500 per month, depending on your size.

The Message

Are you informed? Are you involved? Are you part of the solution? Do you help pull the wagon? Or are you a member of the lazy, apathetic, ignorant group that I taught my children to disdain? To have any hope of impacting the final score of the game – and the game will be played – you must field a team. We need you on the team!  Y  Duane Gangwish is NC’s vice president of Environmental Issues.