Resource committee investigates recycling, energy alternatives
By KERRI REMPP, Record staff writer Monday, September 08, 2008
The Nebraska Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee spent time last week gathering information on several natural resource topics.
At hearings in Chadron, the committee heard testimony regarding LR287 and LR290. LR287 is an interim study to examine Nebraska state forests as potential renewable energy sources, while LR290 is an interim study to examine the possibility of recycling construction site waste and deconstruction materials. Mark Ludwig, legal counsel for the NRC, explained that LR290 will help determine what can be done to facilitate deconstruction of vacant buildings and trailer houses, as well as recycling those materials into new construction.
David Haldeman off the Department of Environmental Quality testified on behalf of the study, explaining that right now primitive landfills are the only way to dispose of construction waste.
“The department wants to find ways to support and further encourage recycling,” he said. Block, brick and metal and can all be sold and recycled into other materials if buildings are deconstructed rather than demolished. LB275, introduced in the last legislative session, would have allowed cities of the second class to apply for grant funding for deconstruction, but it was not passed.
Haldeman said the DEQ would like to see that option pursued again in order to provide another alternative to cities. It would not require additional funding for the department’s grant program, but would rather be another category in which cities can apply for funding.
Spike Jones, mayor of Rushville, also lobbied for something to be done to aid cities with deconstruction of vacant buildings. He said his city has lots of problems with derelict buildings, which are not only an eyesore but present health hazards.
“People try to exist in these shacks that are unfit for human occupation,” he said. Money, and the lack of it, however, always stops the city from pursuing the deconstruction option. Demolition is more cost-effective, but then materials that could be reused go to waste.
Deb Dopheide of Keep Alliance Beautiful also testified during the LB290 portion of the hearing.
“I’ve never understood why we put things into a land fill that can be reused. I just don’t get it. It seems to me, to be frank, quite stupid,” she said.
New businesses want to take root in towns that are neat and clean. To entice them to Nebraska’s towns and keep our population here, the state needs to do what it can to facilitate that.
“This is part of the economic recovery of Nebraska,” Dopheide said.
Holding up a brick, she explained that her parents built a home for their seven children out of nothing but recycled material. The kids dug up railroad platform bricks for the back patio, tore down school houses and hog pens and anything their father thought would be useful in building their home.
“My parents taught me to reuse things and recycle things,” Dopheide concluded.
A total of six people testified on the issue presented by LR290. Ludwig said all of the discussion centered around how to make deconstruction and recycling more feasible.
Seven individuals gave testimony on LR287, much of it focused on Chadron State College’s wood chip heating and cooling system and how the state’s forests can be further utilized. Jim Clyde, a logging contractor, also said the state should look into establishing a revolving loan fund to finance facilities like those at CSC to encourage entities such as schools and hospitals to implement alternative energy sources.
The Natural Resources Committee also had hearings in Alliance and Scottsbluff last week.
The Alliance hearing focused on LR291, an interim study to examine the process for obtaining an instream flow right by either a natural resources district or the Game and Parks Commission, and LR288, an interim study to examine the causes and effects of water depletion across the state.
In Scottsbluff the NRC studied three issues: LR366, an interim study to examine the impact that improved irrigation efficiency could have on the state’s water shortage; LR286, an interim study to examine return flow issues as they affect surface water irrigation; and LR377, an interim study to examine issues relating to the Department of Natural Resources.
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Record photo by Kerri Rempp Deb Dopheide of Keep Alliance Beautiful testified in on the issue of recycling and deconstruction at a Natural Resource Committee hearing in Chadron last week. She’s holding up a brick taken from another building that can be recycled for further use to demonstrate the importance of recycling.
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