Jim Macy, state environmental chief for nine years, to retire next month • Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN — Jim Macy, director of the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy for the past nine years, has announced his retirement.

Macy, 63, will retire effective April 19. He was paid $167,396 a year, according to OpenPayrolls.com.

He worked 28 years with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources before being hired by then-Gov. Pete Ricketts for the top job at the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, which later merged with the state energy department.

Criticized for AltEn response

In a press release, Gov. Jim Pillen thanked Macy for his years of  public service and wished him well.

Macy’s tenure was marked not only by the merger of the departments of environment and energy and streamlining the application process for state permits, but also by criticism over  the department’s handling of a ethanol plant near Mead that had been using pesticide-coated seed corn to produce ethanol and had failed to comply with agency orders to comply with state regulations.

Last year, during debate in the Nebraska Legislature over Macy’s reconfirmation as NDEE chief, State Sen. Carol Blood criticized the director for not acting more quickly to shut down the AltEn ethanol plant, which had been the subject of complaints about rancid odors and possible health impacts for two years from massive piles of waste grain at the facility.

Concerns had also been raised about land application of waste grain from the facility on nearby farm fields.

Environmental groups have also rapped Macy and NDEE for a lack of more urgent action.

The plant was shut down by NDEE order in February 2021, after 4 million gallons of contaminated wastewater leaked from the plant, leaving traces of pesticides up to six miles away. NDEE then sued the firm for failing to address department directives to clean up its operation.

Macy has defended the agency’s response, saying that his agency was visiting the AltEn site three times a week and had worked closely with a group of six seed corn companies that volunteered to clean up the site at no cost to the state.

Others have pointed out that NDEE’s mission is to seek compliance with environmental rules and that AltEn’s use of pesticide-coated seed corn was approved by NDEE in 2012, before Macy took the Nebraska job.

$23 million spent on cleanup by May 2023

NDEE officials, in the lawsuit against AltEn, stated that regulators were not aware that chemically coated seed corn was in use at the plant until 2015 and that they weren’t aware the coatings were hazardous until 2018.

By May 2023, about $23 million had been spent on the AltEn cleanup. Truck transport of the leftover waste grain from a 16-acre pile to a landfill near Bennington began last fall.

Macy rejected claims that NDEE hadn’t been transparent about the AltEn case, saying the agency set up a special webpage about the cleanup and posted all public documents concerning AltEn.

Pillen announced that Thad Fineran will serve as interim director of NDEE starting April 1. He is currently chief of staff to Maj. Gen. Craig Strong, adjutant general for the Nebraska National Guard.

A recruitment firm has been enlisted to conduct a national search for a new director, the Governor’s Office said.