Beatrice asks Gage County to lift restrictions on roughly 8,500 acres; board delays decision two weeks

The Gage County Board of Supervisors opened a public hearing June 10 on a request from the City of Beatrice to remove most of a wellhead protection overlay that currently covers land west and south of the Big Blue River. Tobias Templemeyer, the City Administrator for Beatrice, told the board the change would lift restrictions on roughly 8,200–8,500 acres and would not alter existing well operations or permitting for potable supplies.

Templemeyer said Olsen’s study — provided to the county and noted in the Planning & Zoning review — found no predicted negative impact to the city farm drinking-water wells. He told the board the city’s “City Farm” wells supply the drinking water for Beatrice and that the other set of city wells along the railroad have historically provided industrial water. He said the proposed revision would remove the overlay on the West Side of the Big Blue River, freeing land for potential industrial development while the wells themselves and their operating permits would remain unchanged.

During two hours of presentations and public testimony, a resident who identified himself as Keith Howell asked for clarification about how the change would affect his property across from several wellheads on the Big Blue River, cited concerns about unclear parcel lines, and reported instances of people dumping debris into the river. Board members and staff offered to provide clearer maps and said property owners would generally lose the specific overlay restrictions rather than gain new constraints.

Several supervisors asked technical questions about how the 20-year time-of-travel groundwater zones were determined and how subsurface water movement is modeled. Templemeyer deferred the hydrogeologic details to the Olsen study authors and acknowledged that the city’s presentation did not replace specialized engineering testimony.

The Planning & Zoning Commission had recommended the revision unanimously at its meeting; county planning staff noted this was the first time acreage had been removed from a wellhead protection area in the county’s records. Following public comment and the city presentation, the board voted to close the hearing at 9:30 a.m. and explicitly declined to take action that day, instead placing the item on the agenda for a meeting two weeks later.

What happens next: The county will circulate detailed maps and planning staff materials to interested landowners prior to the next meeting. The board’s delay gives the applicant and residents an opportunity for follow-up technical questions and for the county to confirm any outstanding mappings or study excerpts referenced by the city.