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Natural Resources Committee Hears DWE Plan to Increase Fees, Create NPDES Authority
Summary
The Department of Water, Energy and Environment told the Natural Resources Committee LB761 would raise several program fees (e.g., well registration from $40 to $200) and authorize new hazardous-waste and NPDES fees to reduce general-fund reliance and secure federal match; municipalities and ag groups urged guardrails and phased increases.
The Nebraska Natural Resources Committee on July 1 heard extended testimony on LB761, a Department of Water, Energy and Environment (DWE) bill that would raise and create fees across multiple programs to align revenues with program costs and reduce reliance on general funds.
Senator Tom Brandt introduced the bill on behalf of DWE. Director Jesse Bradley told the committee LB761 would update well registration fees (proposing an increase from $40 to $200), expand cost recovery for livestock facility permitting (from 20% to 40% of program costs), authorize hazardous-waste generator fees under RCRA, and grant the Department authority to assess fees under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) administered under the Clean Water Act. Bradley said the well-fee change is expected to generate roughly $415,000 annually and that the combined package would allow the department to return approximately $1.7 million annually to the general fund by reducing its current draws.
Municipal officials and industry groups raised concerns. Lash Chaffin of the League of Nebraska Municipalities asked for guardrails on the open-ended NPDES language and suggested initial caps or grandfathering to avoid unexpected costs for cities. Industry representatives (Nebraska Cattlemen, Nebraska Pork Producers Association and others) objected to the livestock permitting change from 20% to 40% cost recovery in a single step, calling it “sticker shock” and urging predictable, phased increases and a clear accounting definition of covered costs.
Committee members pressed for more granular fiscal data, asking for a breakdown of which specific fees produced the fiscal-note totals and historical fee baselines; several senators recommended either a graduated schedule or statutory requirement for routine fee reviews to avoid large, infrequent jumps.
Bradley said the department modeled the access and fee structure comparisons on surrounding states and the statutory authority it seeks reflects post-merger adjustments after LB317 consolidated two agencies into DWE. He also said NPDES fee levels would be set later through formal rulemaking and that hazardous-waste fee retention would eliminate a $325,000 general-fund draw currently required for federal match under the EPA RCRA program.
Next steps: the committee closed the public testimony portion of LB761’s hearing; no final committee action was recorded in the transcript for this session.
