Committee hears bill to require notice and consideration for wellhead protection areas

Senator Tom Brandt introduced LB36 on behalf of the Natural Resources Committee, saying the bill would require counties, cities and villages with zoning, land-use or permitting authority to notify entities that have established wellhead protection areas when substantive land-use changes are proposed within those areas. "LB 36 addresses defined areas known as wellhead protection areas," Brandt said, and described them as "the surface and subsurface areas surrounding a well field...through which contaminants are reasonably likely to move forward and reach the water well or well field."

The bill would also require local jurisdictions to "take into consideration the public water supply when making determinations within the defined wellhead protection areas," Brandt said. He and supporters said the measure is intended to add…