Page 16 - Mar Apr 2021-REV

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HARD TRUTH

by Sally Herrin
by Sally Herrin

Nebraska is having a Flint, Michigan moment

The environmental emergency unfold- to be interviewed by British paper The Not funny. If Mead is the new Flint,
ing 30 miles northeast of Lincoln could Guardian, but a water permit specialist at Anytown could be the new Mead. A
read like the screenplay for a dumb and the Nebraska Department of Energy and lasting wound to the Earth. A caution-
dumber adventure some dudes dream up Environment (NDEE) said he believed ary place.
to pay their gambling debts. AltEn scored AltEn officials were only “hardworking Anne Hubbard ‘s powerful “Mid-
over a billion tons of toxic waste since people just trying to make a living.” lands Voices” piece in the Omaha World-
2015, nearly all the unsold/unused bags AltEn has ambition and ruthless- Herald says, “State regulations seem lax
of seed treated with fungicides and pes- ness, sure, but those folks just aren’t regarding the use of treated seed. Govern-
ticides from North America, all cheap or that bright. Maybe that will be AltEn’s ment regulators seemed slow to respond
free! They made ethanol and lime green defense in court. “We didn’t know that and ineffective in their enforcement until
toxic sludge causing stench and bee die- stuff is poisonous! If we call our project very recently. According to what I have
off and dead birds. State officials declined safe and legal, it is!” read, there were plenty of tests show-

MARCH/APRIL 2021 NE REPORT, P. 16 continued on page 14