Senator seeking $200M designation of federal funds to start developing new water source for Lincoln

Sen. Eliot Bostar introduced the bill (LB506) a day after Lincoln’s Water Source Advisory Council issued a recommendation that Lincoln look at building a new municipal wellfield along the Missouri River between Omaha and Nebraska City.

Securing a new source of water – Lincoln currently pipes its water from wellfields along the Platte River near Ashland – would support future population growth up to 400,000 people and sustain the city's needs through 2075, the advisory group said in its recommendation.

The cost of hooking Lincoln up to groundwater near the Missouri River some 50 miles away is estimated to cost nearly $1.4 billion and could take between 15 and 20 years to complete.

Bostar’s bill, which is similar to a previous bill introduced by the Lincoln senator that launched the study conducted by the advisory council, would appropriate $200 million in federal Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund dollars to get the project started.

Under the bill, the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources would be required to award a grant to Lincoln before Sept. 30 to pay for a water treatment plant, transmission pipes, land acquisition, wellfields and related activities.

Bostar, who was a co-chair of Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird’s 27-member “Water 2.0 Project,” said if Lincoln is unable to complete the project, the city could eventually exercise its right to water on the Platte River, which would affect upstream irrigators.

“The future of Lincoln’s water isn’t just a city issue, but a state issue,” the first-term senator said in an interview before the legislative session.

LB506 also appropriates $20 million for grants to small and rural communities to install reverse osmosis systems to treat high levels of nitrates in their community water systems.

Communities with nitrates higher than 10 parts per million – the standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency as the limit in which drinking water is safe to consume – could apply for grants.

Bostar's was among 163 new bills introduced on Tuesday, including:

VOTER ID: Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar's bill (LB535) outlines the requirements for a photo identification Nebraska voters must show before casting a ballot. A proper ID must list a voter's name and show their picture. Military or Native tribal IDs would also qualify.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA: Lincoln Sen. Anna Wishart introduced a bill (LB588) authorizing the cultivation, process and use of marijuana for medical purposes, including strict guidelines for how much an individual can possess and how it can be used.

ABORTION: Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston sponsored a bill (LB626) banning abortions if cardiac activity is detected in a fetus, which typically happens around six weeks after fertilization. Abortions are currently legal in Nebraska up to 20 weeks. Albrecht previewed the bill at a news conference last week.