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Nebraska’s nitrate problem is serious, experts say. Can we solve it?

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Nebraska’s nitrate problem is serious, experts say. Can we solve it?


Fake for a second that Nebraska one way or the other halted all use of nitrogen fertilizer — not a single speck extra on our lawns, golf programs and cornfields.

That is as a result of, in keeping with specialists, generations of corn rising, feedlot runoff and oft-unwitting nitrogen overuse has left a legacy of nitrate, creeping slowly downward towards our water provide.

“It is there, it is shifting towards the groundwater, and there is not a factor we will do about it,” stated Don Batie, a farmer close to Lexington who serves on the Nebraska Pure Assets Fee.

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That legacy makes it essential that Nebraska react extra severely to its nitrate-in-water downside in 2023, stated two dozen specialists interviewed for this story.

The stakes are severe: Nebraska’s median nitrate degree has doubled since 1978. Excessive ranges of nitrate in ingesting water have been linked to pediatric cancers. And Nebraska has the best pediatric most cancers fee of any state west of Pennsylvania, in keeping with the Facilities of Illness Management and Prevention.

The Flatwater Free Press sought options to Nebraska’s nitrate downside from state lawmakers, pure sources district leaders, NRD board members, ag curiosity teams, water and soil specialists, scientists, professors of public well being, regulation and agriculture economics and Nebraska farmers and ranchers.

There’s broad consensus in some areas. Nebraska wants to spice up current packages that may no less than reasonably cut back nitrate, these interviewed stated.

There’s additionally settlement that Nebraska should spend tens of millions extra to safeguard ingesting water, though lots of these interviewed say that pricey filtration methods aren’t a long-term repair.

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The consensus crumbles when some specialists float extra stringent steps.

Ban farming practices identified to be dangerous, some say. Change federal coverage to encourage crops that do not require nitrogen fertilizer. Tax fertilizer overuse. Make the ag trade, not Nebraska taxpayers, pay for the filtration of polluted ingesting water.

And, perhaps most controversially: Mandate how a lot fertilizer Nebraska corn farmers can use.

“The very last thing that something needs is the federal authorities to come back in and boss everybody round on this concern,” stated Logan Pribbeno, a fourth-generation rancher who has applied numerous conservation practices at his household’s Wine Glass Ranch close to Imperial. “They are not gonna get it proper.”

Tim Gragert, a former Republican state senator from Creighton, has grown annoyed with the present system — one through which there is not any penalty for farmers who pollute Nebraska’s water provide.

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“I am all about native management till native management would not occur,” he stated, referring to NRDs and their domestically elected boards, that are tasked with defending groundwater high quality. “No one needs mandates. I get it. However the voluntary system is just not working.”

For many years, specialists have sought to teach farmers on how and when to use fertilizer, and the way a lot to make use of on their corn.

Severe progress has been made, stated Ray Ward, the founding father of Ward Laboratories in Kearney.

He would know — Ward, 85, is called the dean of water and soil testing in Nebraska.

Over the a long time, heeding the recommendation of specialists like Ward, many Nebraska farmers have lowered their nitrogen utilization by roughly a 3rd per bushel of corn grown.

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Nobody, together with Ward, thinks that is sufficient.

Extra farmers want to maneuver away from fall utility, the longstanding apply by which farmers fertilize after harvesting within the fall. It is simpler for the farmer, Ward stated, however worse for the state’s water.

“Why have 6-8 months of nitrogen within the soil, with nothing utilizing it, after which we marvel why it goes into the water?” Ward stated. “I inform farmers, ‘Possibly it is time to do chores once more. Feed the corn when the corn must be fed, not if you wish to put the feed on the market.’ “

Extra farmers ought to apply fertilizer at completely different factors, a course of often known as break up utility, specialists stated. Extra farmers ought to use the right quantity of nitrogen on corn.

It comes again to schooling, the argument goes. Attain extra farmers — for instance with Gragert’s latest proposal LB925, which emphasizes farmer-to-farmer schooling — and you can also make headway whereas farmers get monetary savings.

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“It actually a win-win-win for the producer and the general public and for the setting,” Gragert stated.

However there’s one snag, different specialists stated: Nebraska has been making an attempt related plans for many years.

“We have now executed some schooling, we have now executed some compensation, we have now tried to grease the skids on the uptick of a few of these practices,” stated Anthony Schutz, a College of Nebraska-Lincoln regulation professor and water regulation skilled who’s additionally an NRD board member.

“I believe it is truthful to say that it hasn’t been efficient. We’re nonetheless left with the issue. So then, the query turns into: What else might we do?”

Silvia Secchi, a College of Iowa professor who researches the environmental impacts of agriculture and water sustainability, stated she thinks folks contained in the ag trade — and even economists who examine it — want to contemplate upsetting the established order.

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The federal government might remove subsidies that encourage folks to farm on flood plains, she stated.

She and a number of other others stated the federal government might incentivize the rising of different crops, like alfalfa, wheat and oats, that have been as soon as extra extensively grown in Nebraska. These crops do not want nitrogen fertilizer.

What’s wanted, Secchi stated, is farm insurance policies that defend our soil and water, in ways in which nonetheless permit farmers to make a residing.

“We have now a proper to ask for a coverage that does not shoot ourselves within the foot,” she stated.

Schutz, the water regulation skilled, wonders about serving to cities and small cities which are on the hook for tens of millions to wash up nitrate-laced ingesting water. At the moment, the most important polluters — together with large feedlots, or those that wildly over-apply fertilizer and apply within the fall — pay no price for that cleanup.

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“After I exit and run within the spring (alongside the path), there might be litter and beer bottles,” Schutz stated. “And I’ve joked we must always pay these of us to choose up the stuff they dropped.”

“Nobody thinks of it that approach, as a result of we have now a powerful anti-littering ethic. We do not appear to have the identical ethic with regards to land makes use of and environmental hurt.”

Gragert stated the way in which regulation is organized — the NRDs in command of farming, the Nebraska Division of Surroundings and Vitality in command of concentrated animal feeding operations — results in turf battles. Gragert stated he is seen conditions the place the state supplies permits for a brand new feedlot, “inside a watershed or an space that is already approach excessive in nitrate.”

“There’s loads of finger-pointing occurring,” Gragert stated. “That is not fixing something. What’s really essential is the NRD and the NDEE begin working collectively to repair this. And once more, presently, they aren’t.”

Jesse Bell stated he understands the frustration from all angles.

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Bell is a College of Nebraska Medical Heart public well being skilled who grew up in Bloomfield, inhabitants 986. He has labored for the CDC, and he additionally has labored constructing hog barns.

Now he is a part of a staff learning why and the way nitrate is contributing to well being dangers in Nebraska.

Any resolution have to be workable, he stated. It have to be sensible. However any resolution additionally must preserve the give attention to Nebraska farmkids, very like he as soon as was – Nebraska youngsters who proceed to get recognized with pediatric cancers at larger charges than virtually anyplace else in America.

“So far as I can see, we have now a water high quality concern within the state, and that water high quality concern has potential well being impacts, particularly on youngsters,” stated Bell, director of UNMC’s Water, Local weather and Well being program. “My purpose in all of this: How can we cut back threat in these youngsters? That is the very first thing I wish to attempt to sort out.”

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraska’s first unbiased, nonprofit newsroom targeted on investigations and have tales that matter.

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Nebraskans want and support strong public schools • Nebraska Examiner

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Nebraskans want and support strong public schools • Nebraska Examiner


In Nebraska, we have a constitutional obligation to provide education for our children in the common (public) schools. It is an obligation we take very seriously. 

And in that obligation, we recognize that we need to provide a variety of learning environments for our students and that parents should have a say in determining that environment. That is why, for more than 30 years, Nebraska’s option enrollment program has enabled tens of thousands of students to choose the public school that best fits their needs, even if that school is not the one right down the street. 

In fact, in my home community of Omaha, in Millard, roughly one in four students choose to attend a public school that is not their neighborhood school.

Proponents of measures that would divert public resources to private schools often claim that public school advocates do not believe in choice. Nothing could be further from the truth. We believe that if a school is funded through public dollars, it should be publicly accountable and should follow the most important belief we hold: that we have the privilege of educating all students who come through our doors. 

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During the debate on the first version of the “Opportunity Scholarships” voucher bill, an amendment was proposed to ensure that was the case. The amendment simply required that any private school receiving a publicly funded scholarship would be prohibited from discriminating against students based on elements like race, religion, sexual orientation or disability. 

Supporters of the voucher bill rejected that amendment.   

We strongly believe that education policies should meet the needs of all students. Voucher supporters do not agree. Across the river, in Iowa, we are watching in real time as that state’s school voucher program becomes a massive subsidy for the wealthy. 

Only 12% of the applicants to Iowa’s program had previously attended a public school.  The average income of a family applying for a voucher to move from a public school to a private school in Iowa is more than $128,000.  Perhaps most concerning is the fact that since Iowa passed its voucher program, private school tuition has increased by 25%.

Nebraska needs to heed the warnings from other states. The research has been comprehensive and clear: Large-scale voucher programs do not improve academic outcomes. In fact, in a comprehensive report that was done by Indiana University, after reviewing more than a dozen studies, the report concluded that, “As programs grew in size, the results turned negative, often to a remarkably large degree virtually unrivaled in education research.” 

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These programs not only fail to improve academic outcomes, they also drain a disproportionate number of resources away from our public schools. The Nebraska Legislative Fiscal Office noted that the voucher programs proposed would not reduce public school expenses. 

In fact, depending on who takes these vouchers, the proposed programs could result in a loss of millions of dollars of state aid to public schools. Sadly, that isn’t a hypothetical. In Arizona, its voucher program has ballooned to nearly $1 billion in its cost to taxpayers — while the Isaac Public School District does not even have enough money to pay its staff.

Importantly, the people of Nebraska saw the failings in these other states and reinforced their commitment to a school system that welcomes all students, regardless of their background. In November, hundreds of thousands of Nebraskans voted to support their public schools and to reject vouchers for the fourth time in our state’s history. 

The result was consistent across the state, with a majority in 82 of Nebraska’s 93 counties voting to repeal the voucher bill. Our lawmakers in the Legislature should respect the will of the people and acknowledge that Nebraskans do not support using public funds to pay for private schools.

While the evidence may be clear that a voucher program will not improve the educational outcomes in Nebraska, that does not mean we are content with the current state of education. We believe we need to and can improve on how we serve our students in our public schools. 

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Yet research, as well as our fundamental belief in public education, leads us to know that voucher schemes are not the solution. We have proposed several measures in this Legislative session that would help address our state’s ongoing teacher retention challenges. 

We are also supporting measures like Sen. Margo Juarez’s Legislative Bill 161, which would increase funding for public preschool. States that have demonstrated the greatest progress in improving math and reading outcomes for students are those that have committed to expanding preschool access. 

We want every child in our state to have the best possible learning environment. The evidence is clear that vouchers are not the answer. The answer is strengthening our Nebraska public schools.

Tim Royers, a public school educator and Nebraska’s 2016 Teacher of the Year, is president of the Nebraska State Education Association. He taught in the Millard Public Schools.

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Busboom Kelly gets major pay bump as Nebraska volleyball head coach

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Busboom Kelly gets major pay bump as Nebraska volleyball head coach


LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – New Nebraska volleyball head coach Dani Busboom Kelly has signed a six-year, $4.575 million contract with the Huskers, set to begin Friday.

According to documents released by Nebraska Athletics, Busboom Kelly will earn a base salary of $700,000 in her first year, with annual increases of $25,000. By the final year of her contract, which runs through Jan. 31, 2031, she will make $825,000.

According to documents released by Nebraska Athletics, Dani Busboom Kelly will earn a base salary of $700,000 in her first year, with annual increases of $25,000. By the final year of her contract, which runs through Jan. 31, 2031, she will make $825,000.(Nebraska Athletics)

Her contract includes performance bonuses, including $50,000 if Nebraska wins the Big Ten Conference Championship and $100,000 if she is named AVCA National Coach of the Year.

She would also receive a $50,000 bonus for reaching the NCAA volleyball tournament’s Final Four and $100,000 for winning the national title.

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Another clause of the contract states that if the Huskers make it to the Final Four in any given year, the contract will be extended another year, with the same $25,000 base salary increase.

At Louisville, Busboom Kelly’s base salary was $400,000 through 2028.

Busboom Kelly will succeed her former coach and mentor, John Cook, who announced his retirement on Wednesday after 25 seasons as Nebraska’s head volleyball coach.

Cook was earning $825,000 before retiring, having signed a contract extension in May 2024.

Busboom Kelly will be formally introduced as the Huskers’ head coach on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The welcome event will be open to the public with an introductory press conference to follow.

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Parents deserve the right to choose what’s best for their children • Nebraska Examiner

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Parents deserve the right to choose what’s best for their children • Nebraska Examiner


Every parent wants their child to succeed. That looks different for every student — whether it’s academic excellence, social growth or emotional well-being. But ultimately it’s about helping each child reach their full potential. When a child struggles in school — whether academically, socially or emotionally — parents deserve real solutions to help them thrive.

This week is National School Choice Week, and it’s a reminder of the importance of empowering parents to choose the school that best meets their child’s unique needs. Public, private or parochial — every student deserves a chance to succeed in an environment that works for them. 

During my time in the Legislature, I worked with my colleagues, Gov. Pete Ricketts, and later Gov. Jim Pillen to champion education reform that supported kids, parents, teachers, and taxpayers.

Education matters

We mandated a focus on reading in early grades and testing for learning disabilities so conditions like dyslexia are diagnosed and addressed at an early age. We invested in teacher recruitment, retention and loan forgiveness programs. And we provided a record 38% increase in state funding for public schools, the largest increase in four decades.  

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This funding included a minimum of $1,500 per student in foundation aid that provided state funding to more than 180 rural school districts that otherwise weren’t receiving state K-12 equalization aid. We also increased how much the state would cover of special education costs from 42% to 80%, doubling the state’s commitment to children with special needs.  

Despite relentless opposition from the teachers union, a bipartisan majority of the Legislature passed school choice bills in 2023 and 2024. With the adoption of the Opportunity Scholarships Act tax credit program two years ago, Nebraska became the 49th state to approve a school choice bill. Last year the Legislature replaced that program with an education scholarship program funded with a $10 million state appropriation.

Through these two scholarship programs, more than 4,000 students from across the state were given access to the best educational fit for them.  These scholarships are making a life-changing difference for families in Norfolk, Seward, Beatrice, Omaha, Nebraska City, Ogallala, South Sioux City, David City, Grand Island, Lincoln and dozens more communities across the state. For many families, this is the first time they’ve been able to choose an educational path that meets their children’s needs. 

Tragically for these families, special interests led by unions spent more than $7 million misrepresenting these programs, which resulted in their repeal in November. There is a disturbing irony in the election results.  Former teachers union president Jenni Benson gave a TV interview in which she stated their repeal efforts wouldn’t take scholarships from kids. The union’s paid advertising stated the scholarship programs took money from public schools. And petition circulators said the program benefitted the rich when the program prioritized low-income families. Regardless of the barrage of false claims, several communities, who want and need better educational options voted not to repeal Opportunity Scholarships.  

These communities stretch across Nebraska, from the economically depressed urban areas of Omaha to Scotts Bluff County and communities as diverse as Lexington and Norfolk. 

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Growing elsewhere

Meanwhile school choice is advancing across the country with new and expanded programs proposed in Texas, North Dakota, Tennessee, South Dakota, Virginia and elsewhere.  

Across the Missouri River, Iowa’s education savings account (ESA) program will be accessible to all families regardless of income beginning this fall. Nebraska families deserve the same opportunities. 

Supporters of school choice in Nebraska won’t relent because the future of our kids is too important to walk away from. This year Nebraska lawmakers will consider several proposals to empower parents to choose the school that’s the best fit for their child, including an Iowa-style ESA, vouchers, and tax credit scholarships, among others.  

With more than 4,000 Nebraska students receiving scholarships in the current school year, a new program will be needed to keep those students from losing their newfound opportunity. I simply cannot believe Nebraskans are in favor of disrupting the education of 4,000 children who finally found the right school.

We must stand together for these children and protect their scholarships. This is common sense, and it should not be controversial. As Governor Jim Pillen said in his State of the State address, “Every child deserves a chance to succeed.”  

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Lou Ann Linehan served as chair of the Nebraska Legislature’s Revenue Committee for six years before being term-limited after 2024.

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