The "Nebraska First" Initiative
​
Tax Lien Reform Proposal
By
Larry Bolinger

 Tax Lien, lien foreclosures, and forecloses is something that I have dealt with and studied over the past few years. I've seen asset companies that invest in property tax liens in a somewhat unethical way. This type of business has been an aggressively growing business. If you are late on paying your property taxes, a company can come in, pay your taxes on your property and charge you interests.
   By law, they can charge 14% interest, but what I have seen is a $500 charge which in some cases doubles the total taxes for the year. This can be a case of being late a week or two. I would assume that if you are a week or two late on your taxes and someone is jumping on that already, then I could assume that there is some sort of dispersant that tells those companies that you are late. Normally if you owe back taxes it is made public in the March newspaper. So if you are a couple of weeks late and an investment company knows about it without it being made public, we can only assume that someone from the county office is calling in those late taxes to the investment company. If you are late on a payment you might have a late payment charge to the county treasurer and you will have extra penalties created by the investment company. If the investment company pays 3 years of taxes they can foreclose on your property and sell it. In this gray area of business, I know of one company that's doing this, and what they'll do is go through the courts, get their legal papers, then instead of filing the paperwork properly they pocket the paperwork, instead of having this information available at the county treasures office. So you can buy a property, check with an assessor’s office and county treasures office and it will show that there are no liens and no back taxes. You do the deed transfer and it shows that you are the only owner on that deed. meanwhile, an asset company may be online trying to sell your property.

I've talked to one of these companies called US Asset that is managed by Deanna Waloca and Angela Eyrich and they are running the tax lien business in US Asset in this manner. Pocketing the legal paper
work rather than file the paperwork with the county treasure is an unethical business practice. Deanna says, she can hold those papers for 10 years and has the right to sell your property. The landowner can sell their property, but in that sale, they would have to pay the lien she has filed even though there is nothing on file at the courthouse. But she says that if she sells your property, you get nothing. I can see some of this as being a city bail-out. Where if a lot of people in the city were not paying taxes on their property and an asset company comes in and buys out a lot of taxes. But there has to be some sort of structure. it can't be set as a free for all to take people's land and property. There has to be structure, there has to be proper filing. Landowners should be notified beforehand. If there is a procedure missed the suit is dropped. In this process, you can be late, doesn't matter how late, and an asset company can come in and make your payment and bill you an extra $500 per half. Standard is 14% but it is getting billed out at $500, which doubles some people's taxes. In the "New Math", 14% of $450 = $500. "Old School Math" would show the equation as 14x450 and divide that by 100 which equals $63. I'd imagine the basic theory behind doubling your taxes is to make it so high that you can't catch up, That way you are guaranteed to lose your property. I’ve been buying and selling property and investing in properties for several years. The standard practice is before you officially buy or close on a property you check with the county assessors and the county treasure to check for back taxes and liens. Check the hard copy at the county clerk's office. It would also be advisable to check with the Clerk of the District Court office for anything filed against the property. I have a property that had gone through this process. I checked with the treasury office and County Clerks' office and there were no liens. There were just a couple of years of back taxes. So I bought the property, then 7 or so months later I started seeing an asset company trying to sell my property. That company was US Asset and Deanna Waloca. And when confronted about this, she said it foreclosed. But there were no documents filed with the county treasures office, and she says that it's not her fault that I didn’t hire someone to check all the legal stuff with the building before buying it. Which, the only thing I should have to do is check with the assessors and treasures office to obtain any information about the building. I shouldn’t have to hire a special investigator to dig up hidden information about the
building. In the new math, I owed $6000 in taxes that rounded off to $50,000. $50,000 is 14% of $6000 in new math. Which is clearly wrong. But it is high enough to force people to lose their property.

   Comparing our tax lien program to other states, it seems like the Nebraska tax lien program may have been implemented under some desperation without any thought of the implications put on landowners. Looks like it was created to make a quick buck for the county and a couple of asset companies. And in some cases, it doesn’t make anymore because a building may have to sit and be tied up in courts for months or years and during that time it may receive multiple liens, which would make the property a very tough sale. If we continue with this, it’ll eventually destroy the economy.

Proposed change:

     The changes I would like to see done is to go back to the system that a company cannot buy your taxes unless it's 3 years past due. I’d like to see this at 4 years. Some states have it set at 5 years, and will give you a year to catch up on the taxes before finalizing a foreclosure. At the moment, if you’re a day past due, then people are buying your taxes and tack on a hefty penalty. On lien foreclosures, I’d like to see this being handled with more brokers' involvement. If a property is at a point that a property owner has to sell, or they may lose the property in foreclosure, that there would be a policy created so you would be able to do a contract with a realty broker. If a person contracts with a broker, that gives them rights to manage that property and get it sold. Properties would have to meet FHA standards and be taken care of regularly, with monthly inspections by qualified inspectors.

   What we have now, is a couple of companies in the state are specialized in buying property taxes to put liens on property to, supposedly stimulate the economy. Kicking people out of their property stimulates the economy? That system only stimulates one or two companies by taking advantage of other people's misfortunes. Basically, the poor get poorer, and the rich take advantage of the poor. So, we can have a program to get the 1 or 2 companies rich or set up a program that will help thousands live comfortably. And in both cases, the taxes do get paid. And if you sign on directly with a broker, the property can be marketed quickly. Rather than sitting in the loop for a couple of years in that limbo stage where nobody knows who has the rights of the property with a continued legal issue surrounding the property. If a property owner signs with a broker, that secures that property for sale. And the next thing is to make sure the property meets FHA standards for property preservation. Which standard foreclosures must meet FHA code, while lien foreclosure there is no structure. Most brokers have a list of Property Preservation specialists in each state, and there are
national registries.


   To recap on this: We set the time frame of 4 years before a company can invest and buy someone’s taxes. From that time of the tax lien, the landowner would have 1 year to pay off the lien or it could go into foreclosure for the lien, or the landowner contract with a Broker to sell, and upon the sale, the lien and interest not exceeding 14% is paid to the investment company. The landowner gets paid if the property is sold for more than what he or she owes, and the broker gets his/her commission. As long as the landowner is contracted with a broker, the property can’t finalize and go into foreclosure. If the property is not occupied, then the Broker will have to make sure the property is up to FHA code and being maintained. The Broker would have a choice to hire a Property Preservation specialist to bring the building up to FHA code and do recurring services or have the property preservation specialist do an inspection and fill out a form to show what needs to be done to bring a property up to FHA code. The landowner would then have to do the work.

​Other interests:
  •  There are different areas of reform I will work on. I will be working on law reform with a focus on victimless crimes and utilizing programs to reduce recidivism.
  • Law enforcement reform. Continue the education on the Presidential taskforce on 21st Community policing
  • Bail Reform: There is a problem in our bail system where if you are wealthy, you’re able to post bail and not see any jail time while if you are poor you go to jail. We need a better program that treats the poor and wealthy as equals when there is a crime committed.
  • Reform to reduce recidivism: I would support diversion programs.
  • Law reform with a focus on victimless crimes. When possession of marijuana has a higher penalty than rape, that tells me my government doesn't value women as much as they should. 
  • Remove Truancy as a status offense. Using Mediation between Social Services, the child, parent, and schools has cut recidivism by as much as 40% while the Juvenile court system has increased recidivism that resulted in other criminal activities)
  • Reduce marijuana possession penalties.  I will try and push to reduce penalties until marijuana is legalized.
  • I would want to make sure the policies are done right for the state meatpacker inspectors to allow state-to-state and international sales. There were issues in other states that lacked policies and were denied state-to-state sales and international sales until they were USDA qualified. I want to make sure our business is not stopped because of this. And if the state inspectors are USDA qualified a grant can pay half the cost of the inspector.
  •  I would like to see marijuana removed as a Schedule 1 drug. The Institute of Medicine presented proof of a medical need decades ago, but politicians refuse to listen to those professionals. A government knowingly giving a false description could be considered a violation of US Code Title 18, section 1001 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
  • Remove the policy for paraphernalia. It is an empty charge. Anything can be considered paraphernalia depending on how creative you are.  Most times it ends up being what I would consider a double charge of possession.
  • Remove the charge of losing your license if in possession of marijuana. The charge should fit the crime. If someone was driving while under the influence, a license suspension would be a fitting penalty.  But for simple possession, a license suspension penalty does not fit the crime. It is an overreaching penalty that could violate the 8th Amendment.
  • Support expansions of drug courts and rehab programs. (Research analysis has shown that this has cut down recidivism by as much as 60%)
  • We need proper policies prepared and introduced for legalization.
  • Harsh penalties for cybercrimes. (As new technology is created so are online criminal activities). Some cybercrimes are from other Nations and there should be charges filed in international court and hold those countries liable. 
  • Protect property rights. Many policies need reviewed and argued that were created to give more power to the government and banks to allow more property takeovers. Such as the Substandard and Blighted program, the changes in the tax lien program, and the newly presented LB695.
  • I'd like to see higher penalties into the scams that have been created to extort money from Seniors. 
  • Environment concerns: Many issues have developed where there has been illegal dumping of chemicals that leaked into our water supplies. The companies and the government need to be held accountable for those actions and be held accountable to clean up the toxins and reimburse for any losses.  I am also a supporter of the "Laws of the Sea" and the London Dumping Convention which focuses on clean water and stopping the dumping of garbage into our sea. 
  

Law Reform and Diversion Programs:
                Law reform and supportive diversion programs will help bring our legal system into the 21st century. But mass change needs to be a coordinated effort. This means going out and gathering information from the communities that would be impacted and seeing what is needed. Mass changes without talking to the communities would be irresponsible.
  • Law reform will be a large issue to tackle. That would mean going through every policy that creates a penalty for victimless crimes. Then present the policy to the community to be argued, then make proposals to the legislatures to remove or change those policies. To date, I have already sent in a research analysis with a request to remove truancy as a status offense. This would replace sending kids to a juvenile court by utilizing mediation and rehab programs. A study has shown a drop of 40% when utilizing mediation such as a social service mediator that works with the child, parents, and school. Implementing such changes would need community support. Diversion programs utilize a town's assets and I would have to make sure the towns are ready for change and provide information and training if need be. I conducted a research analysis on the effects of diversion programs compared to putting a child through the system and sent that to local county commissioners, county attorneys, police departments, sheriff's departments, and State Legislature for review.
  • Some victimless crimes are issues concerning drugs or possession. This would not include toxins such as fentanyl. One item that I feel needs argued would be removing the Schedule 1 classification for Marijuana and reclassifying it as having medical uses. The Institute of Medicine has presented information to Congress several times with research that shows several medical needs, with 38 states already approving its medical need. I have done a research analysis and sent that information to both Congress and the State Legislature for review.
 Many victimless crime penalties need to be reviewed. They will need to be presented to the population and argued. At one point these items were not illegal to do, some were infractions, and some had increased penalties from an infraction to misdemeanor or felony. Many laws and the penalty increase for those law violations were done without the general population's input. I want to fix policies with the general population's input.
Many victimless crimes need to be looked at that have overreaching penalties. I feel it is best to have community interaction when developing or changing policies. I have a large list to look over, but to get the best results I would like your input.
A combination of law reform and training on diversion programs maybe the mixture we need to improve our system of government. Utilizing diversion programs in an adult setting has been shown to reduce recidivism by as much as 60%.  That can make a significant impact on the overpopulation in our prisons which can save taxpayer money.
An Attorney General is the top legal officer in the State. They advise and represent the Legislature and State agencies and act as the “People’s Lawyer.” Everything I’ve done in politics over the past 15 years has been to fight for what is right for the people and I will continue to do that as the Next Attorney General.
 

 
 




 
Expunging Records:
With law reform, we should be looking at changing laws and expunging records. Review laws that were changed from infractions to misdemeanors and have those reversed back to infractions. Look at victimless crimes and their severity and have a time frame that will automatically change in public availability. If new laws remove a penalty then records for that penalty will be expunged. Some policies allow a person to file to get records expunged if it is cases of child abuse or adult abuse if one can prove that adult was vulnerable.
  I, myself have a misdemeanor charge for snow removal. I and a group of people shoveled snow in front of an old school building I once owned. But the wind blew some snow on the sidewalk living less than ¼ inch of snow on the ground. I was charged with a misdemeanor charge and a $260 fine. The policy itself is petty. In most areas, something like this would have been considered an infraction rather than a misdemeanor. But a penalty such as this can keep a person from obtaining certain jobs.
   The way the current laws for expungement are as follows:
“Expunging” a criminal record essentially means that the record will no longer be accessible to the public. Even an expunged record in Nebraska remains available to law enforcement, the courts, and certain government agencies in most cases. Many states allow an individual to expunge records of conviction for misdemeanors and even for certain lesser felonies. The State of Nebraska, however, does not allow any convictions to be expunged.
Section 29-3523 of the Nebraska Revised Statutes addresses the issue of Nebraska expungement. With regards to removing, or expunging, the record of an arrest, Section 29-3523(2) sets forth the time frames that a record of an arrest will remain on your criminal history, stating as follows:
  • In the case of an arrest for which no charges are filed as a result of the determination of the prosecuting attorney, the arrest shall not be part of the public record after one year from the date of arrest;
  • In the case of an arrest for which charges are not filed as a result of a completed diversion, the arrest shall not be part of the public record after two years from the date of arrest; and
  • In the case of an arrest for which charges are filed, but dismissed by the court on motion of the prosecuting attorney or as a result of a hearing not the subject of a pending appeal, the arrest shall not be part of the public record after three years from the date of arrest.
Subsection (3) of that section also addresses expungement of an arrest due to an error of law enforcement, reading, in pertinent part:
NEBRASKA EXPUNGEMENT FAQ
Nebraska Expungement Any person arrested due to the error of a law enforcement agency may file a petition with the district court for an order to expunge the criminal history record information related to such error. The petition shall be filed in the district court of the county in which the petitioner was arrested.
The county attorney shall be named as the respondent and shall be served with a copy of the petition. The court may grant the petition and issue an order to expunge such information if the petitioner shows by clear and convincing evidence that the arrest was due to error by the arresting law enforcement agency.”
(Nebraska Legislature)
28-381.Amendment or expungement of records; good cause; notice. At any time, the department may amend, expunge, or remove from the registry any record upon good cause. Upon request, written notice of any amendment, expunction, or removal of any record made under the Adult Protective Services Act shall be served upon the vulnerable adult who is the subject of the report or the person who allegedly abused the vulnerable adult. The department shall advise any other individuals or agencies who received a copy of the record pursuant to the Adult Protective Services Act to amend, expunge, or destroy such record. All information identifying the subjects of unsubstantiated reports shall be expunged from the registry.
 
 
https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=29-3523


I would like to add to this policy of expungement to include cases that involve victimless crimes. There are many cases that a judge overreached on penalties. I know a person that got a misdemeanor for snow removal. Should that person be considered a criminal for the rest of his life?


Nebraska Voters Guide Link: https://nebraskavoterguide.com/candidates/larry-bolinger

Ballotpedia information and questionnaire: https://ballotpedia.org/Larry_Bolinger

1011 news link: 
https://www.1011now.com/page/larry-bolinger/

Sioux City Journal link:
https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/larry-bolinger/article_2f85538e-9828-57a8-b616-7538649f17c9.html

Western Nebraska Observer:
https://www.westernnebraskaobserver.net/story/2022/10/13/news/getting-their-say/8315.html


Sidney Sun Telegraph:
https://www.suntelegraph.com/story/2022/01/19/news/bolinger-enters-race-for-attorney-general/16808.html

Voterly
https://voterly.com/politicians/HzJucJyKwl/larry-bolinger

Nebraska.tv news:
https://nebraska.tv/news/local/2021-uno-undergraduate-announces-run-for-nebraskas-attorney-general-position

Long Live Alternative Parties:
https://anchor.fm/longlivethirdparties/episodes/Interview-with-the-Nebraska-Legal-Marijuana-NOW-Partys-Attorney-General-Candidate-Larry-Bolinger-e1m537c

York Times:
https://yorknewstimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/larry-bolinger/article_5cdfafb3-db15-5922-a373-fe7350b45c10.html

Journal Star:
https://journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/legal-marijuana-now-larry-bolinger/article_7e00fe8e-04be-5c02-8ea6-81d2163a0f48.html

Freedom voter guide:
https://freedomvoterguide.com/candidates/larry-bolinger/

Alliance Times:
https://alliancetimes.com/bolinger-runs-for-attorney-general/

Voter Information Project Nebraska:
https://www.voterinformation.org/races/general-2022/attorney-general---s9dbkehs1a/

The Ground:
https://ground.news/article/larry-bolinger


Wikipedia:
​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Nebraska_Attorney_General_election

Activote:
https://acti.vote/yeNwVnwFRAEmufQq6 

Alliance Times: Letter to the editor
https://alliancetimes.com/the-need-for-human-capital-to-improve-government-performance/?fbclid=IwAR0ZlvVjL_OM9azN4SOQzg50PfoXoemiDFQJI3L_W91d3Saehzcq8lqB9MU


Vote USA.org questionnaire. ​
​https://vote-usa.org/Intro.aspx?State=NE&Id=NEBolingerLarryLeeScott

​Interview with the Nebraska Associates of Public Employees. Click HERE napeafscme.org/2024-gac-primary-interview-summary-ld-47/?fbclid=IwAR21l27YYq4t3cvgdyamcz_Ts3-dJkfRoe0PQNF2clHQbsIpDmFhj-b2r7E_aem_AbwZhgc6N1MdeQWgITfzdHAJcy2nfCYwn6U1QEhgud7TI8vHQpumi4NuW_OYGHWWyDKexxoRzegaf6ClSJt3OXFhMarch 2024
https://napeafscme.org/2024-gac-primary-interview-summary-ld-47/?fbclid=IwAR21l27YYq4t3cvgdyamcz_Ts3-dJkfRoe0PQNF2clHQbsIpDmFhj-b2r7E_aem_AbwZhgc6N1MdeQWgITfzdHAJcy2nfCYwn6U1QEhgud7TI8vHQpumi4NuW_OYGHWWyDKexxoRzegaf6ClSJt3OXFh

2024 Video: Building Economic Stability in Nebraska
https://youtu.be/sIAuIuPAguE


Attorney General Candidate: Larry Bolinger https://kgfw.com/?futurishared=6065&station=KGFWAM#.Y1OGEKaxVwk.twitter

Larry Bolinger History of Campaigns
https://youtu.be/n3AXdvN3_Qk

Right to Repair by Larry Bolinger
https://youtu.be/C7OU8Ta67H0​

Reforming the Attorney General office by Larry Bolinger video: 
https://youtu.be/4DE42yX7B0w

Diversion Programs by Larry Bolinger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUyFjs2lP7Y
The video is my approach to utilizing diversion programs to reduce recidivism in our prisons.

Why I changed Political Parties by Larry Bolinger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmK2yUdHPMI
Protecting our Resources

 ​This is a Thesis I wrote for a college class I took and it will go through the changes in our water supplies and how our supplies have gotten worse over the years despite the millions of dollars that we spend on trying to take contaminants out of it.
    There are many environmental issues we face today that has resulted in our actions or inactions. By not fixing our mistakes, our water supply and environment will continue to get worse. Over the years contaminants from the farming industry, Rail Road, oil companies, fracking industries, and many other types of industries or companies have contaminated our drinking water. Knowing this and having not taken action long ago to clean the contaminants up could have prevented a great deal of damage that has destroyed our environment. Continuing to allow these businesses to commit actions that cause so much destruction of our water supply and environment, which our government knows of, and allowing these actions to continue is negligence on their part. Examples of these would be; spraying for insects, pesticide control, oil spills, introducing fracking water into old wells, or diesel leakage.
     I am 51 years old. I was born and raised in Nebraska, and I have noticed significant changes in our environment over the years. My main topic is our water supply and how that has changed over the past 5 decades during my time in Nebraska. I believe that if we don’t put more focus on cleaning up our water supply, we could be facing dire straits in the years to come.
    As a child growing up in the ’70s, I did a lot of swimming and fishing. There weren’t any major fears of contaminants in our water supply during my youth. So, I spent a lot of time swimming at the pool, nearby lakes, and I was even talked into swimming in the city’s fountain before they had installed a filter system. At that time, it was a moss-filled, nasty mess, but both I and my cousin had a great deal of fearless fun. The only problem that I saw at that time with the water was when it was hot outside. Towards the end of the summer, after a long heat spell, the fish got wormy. Sometimes people who swam in the different lakes late in the summer would get the swimmer’s itch. Nothing major, it was just something that happened now and again.
     Thirty years ago, we would have never thought that we would have to rely on bottled water for drinking. The water tasted good and we never heard of anyone getting sick from drinking out of the tap or even the garden hose. The changes in the water contamination started with testing, with the results showing that there were several chemicals and pesticides in our water. Testing of the water started about 15 years ago. Some of those chemicals that were found in our water supply were blamed on farmers and some people blamed the chemicals getting into our water supply on the Rail Road. We also had issues with e-coli. A report came out claiming that there was a dead dog in the well. The cure for any contaminants has always been chlorine. In the late 1990’s we started having e-coli scares, which helped push for investing in water treatment systems.
     In 1998, I was recruited into Network 21, which is a branch of the company called Amway. One of their big sales items was a water treatment system. Easy to install, it took out 99% of the contaminants, including e-coli and chlorine. The system was fairly reasonable, but the filter cost about a hundred bucks. It was a pretty standard practice to sell the system at a fair price to gain long-time customers to pay a high price to maintain their system.
    Water treatment sales and promotions were on the rise in the 1990s. However, I do not recall any indication or notice from our government that would lead us to have any concern about the contamination levels of our water supplies. When sales were up for residential water filtration systems in the ’90s, water testing was not a huge concern until around 2005, when it became a priority to test our water supply. Looking at these dates and theorizing on our government’s concern of our drinking supply, it is certainly wondering why this was not a concern for the general public’s safety for so many years. 
    Eventually, our city decided to look into a state program to upgrade our wells and build a water treatment plant. Further studies were done on our water supply that indicated that our drinking water was showing above the allowable levels of arsenic. There were also high levels of mercury in different lakes. After the city had committed to a thirty-six million dollar project to update the wells and build a water treatment plant, we still had test results that showed levels of arsenic, and we still had e-coli outbreaks. I do believe the completion of the water treatment system took place around the year 2009. Around that time, I had decided to serve on the City’s Planning Commission.
    One of the larger projects I remember while serving on the City’s Planning Commission is making the decision and approving the building of a three-million-dollar swimming pool. The old swimming pool was deteriorated and had a large crack in it. It was leaking hundreds of gallons of chlorinated water into the ground each day. The crack had been there for many years before it was discovered, wasting hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per year. The old swimming pool had leaked through the soil and eventually back into our water drinking supply.
    One issue that comes to mind is when the proposal was being presented to the Planning Commission, one of the City Council members stated several times that the old swimming pool was so gross that he wouldn’t even allow his dog to walk in it. The city also stated that it would cost almost as much to repair the old swimming pool as it would build a new one. Building a new swimming pool was estimated to cost around three million dollars. After long deliberation, it was approved that a new swimming pool would be built. During the phase of building a new swimming pool, it was discovered that the actual repair cost for the old swimming pool was closer to fifty thousand dollars, not three million. I felt very deceived by the City Council when I discovered that they lied about the cost of repairing the old swimming pool. In retrospect, the odds are that we would have eventually approved the new pool anyway because the old one was getting run down and needed extensive repairs. A couple of years later I found out that there wasn’t a crack in the pool that was causing a loss of water. The swimming pool water was connected to the sprinkler system to the baseball field and they were losing water through that. Which seems kind of odd. I’m guessing they probably didn’t know what they were talking about so they made up theories so they can get approved for a new pool.
   Additionally, even with the water treatment system still in place, there continued to be reports of e-coli outbreaks in our water system, resulting in more chlorine being added to our water supply. Unfortunately for the residents, there was still an issue of high levels of arsenic. I, myself, was sick for two weeks from drinking the tap water. Many people I knew personally were getting sick from drinking the water also. After a while of drinking the city water, I started having esophagus problems and terrible heartburn. Then suddenly the muscle in my esophagus stopped working altogether. Eventually, the stomach acid ate away all my teeth. It was a horrible experience to go through. I began to notice that I wasn’t the only one experiencing this side effect. A significant number of people I knew were having similar issues. This is when I stopped drinking the water out of the tap. I just wondered how we could spend over thirty-six million dollars on updating the wells and water treatment systems and still have water that is not pure enough to drink. In my opinion, it is odd enough to pay for water to drink in the first place and even odder to pay for drinking water you cannot safely drink.
   The contamination of our water supply has increased significantly. Contamination continues from activities that create the transference of bacteria, contaminants from ethanol plants, and from places that involve fracking and oil pipeline spillages. With the growth of fracking and expansion of the Keystone pipeline company into Nebraska, we made an existing problem worse. When the Nebraska Legislatures and Governor were promoting the contract between Colorado and Nebraska to store fracking water in the old oil wells, several people opposed this idea. One resident even challenged a Senator to take a drink of the fracking water. If the Senator had thought it was safe to drink the water then the challenge would have been accepted. However, I feel the Senator was fully aware that it was not safe to drink the fracking water. Weeks later, the contract was approved to store fracking water in the old oil wells, and once again, the people’s voices were ignored.
   There was also a lack of action by our government to clean up contaminants that were created by an ethanol plant in Mead Nebraska. The plant was using seeds that had been sprayed with pesticides. The mash was stored outside in a pit. The contaminants leaked into the nearby stream and killed off all the fish destroyed the water supply and destroyed many people’s lands. There were millions of gallons of contaminated water that were spilled. The company had the neighboring farmers spread the mash over their land to help with adding minerals to the soil. But with the chemicals that were in it, it made the animals sick. It was not until February of 2021 that the plant was forced to close. That’s 20 years of contaminants going into our water supply.
    In the “Journal State,” it states that Nebraska created about fifty-four million barrels of wastewater in 2015 through fracking. Some people that support fracking and have wells that are being used to store fracking water had stated that they were worried about bad publicity. In reading about this, I feel disgusted that, that was their only worry. They did not worry about poisoning anyone. They did not worry about ruining our soil or water supply. I wondered why it wasn’t more obvious to the general public that fifty-four million barrels of water are a significant amount of water being wasted. If you take that and add what is used to cool down nuclear power plants, it would more than outweigh the total amount of all the irrigation being used for farming. I remember reading a report on water usage on nuclear power plants at roughly the same time. The contract was being discussed to store fracking water from the state of Nebraska clear to the state of Colorado. That report stated that the water being used on cooling nuclear power plants was more than the amount of irrigation. Instead of blaming the shortage of fresh water on fracking and on nuclear power plants, irrigation was being blamed for the water shortage. When you think about the water being used to cool nuclear power plants, and then add what is being used for fracking, it is an extremely large misuse of our resources.
    One of the major environmental issues in Nebraska in 2021 is the chemical leak caused by an ethanol plant in Mead Nebraska. The plant was using seeds that were coated with pesticides which lead to a buildup of mash with pesticides that contaminated water systems. This has been a topic of discussion since 2015. The state tried to pressure the AltEn to fix their mash holding areas and they were never fixed well enough to keep the contaminants from getting into the water supply. As of 2021 1.75 million gallons of contaminants have been cleaned.
    12 February 2021 more than four million gallons of pesticide-ridden wastewater had drained into the downstream waterways. After the 3 September 2021 rain there was an overflow of the bladders and more contaminants poured into the waterways. There were roughly 175 million gallons of polluted wastewater being stored. The leaks have killed off wildlife and created inhabitable lakes. Some of the mash was spread over farmland which lead to animals getting sick. (NTV News, 2021)
    Actions or inactions can cause things to become better or worse. I have been affected by the contaminants in our water supplies and so have many others. My fight started after I felt ill for over two weeks from drinking the tap water. Even 10 years later, drinking water out of the tap tastes like chalk. My way of fighting against this problem is to attempt to improve what has been done to our environment, by continuously running for office. I ran for the position of Legislatures for my district. I have run for City Council three times and for Congress. I am going on my second time this year running for Congress. Part of my platform for campaigning for Congress is on environmental issues and protecting our resources, with a focus on cleaning up our water supplies. I will continue the fight until we clean up the mess we have made.
 
 
Resources:
Bergin Nicholas, (June 2016), “Nebraska Judge over turns fracking water disposal decision”, https://journalstar.com/business/local/nebraska-judge-overturns-fracking-water-disposal-decision/article_48a28d35-935a-56e5-9273-2ef924187f61.html
 
NTV News. (3 September 2021). “Mead Community rocked by second AltEn spill amid clean up and heavy rains.”
https://nebraska.tv/news/local/mead-community-rocked-by-second-alten-spill-amid-clean-up-and-heavy-rains?fbclid=IwAR2gmUorkyWUFbuATK0W5bbFIb8zkBGPo8I-wTY9L_8CZxPxyiy1fbJFoUY
 
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