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The Northeast Nebraska RC&D has five main priority areas. They are:
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 Environmental Protection
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Missouri River Coalition
Sedimentation, siltation, stream bank erosion and loss of wildlife habitat are all problems for this multi-state area. These issues are impacting drinking water quality, have flooding concerns, loss of lake and all recreational economic development surrounding that. There's cooperation across state lines and discussions about dredging, stream bank control, a sedimentation forum, and possible watershed projects.
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Pesticide Container Collection
Clean used agricultural pesticide containers are being recycled to protect groundwater and air quality. Private businesses have joined in to help get these out of circulation and turned into new recycled products. Semi-trailers were purchased through a DEQ grant to store them until they can be shred and turned into new products.
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Used Oil Collection and Reuse
This is a partnership with Keep Nebraska Beautiful and six counties to protect groundwater by collecting used oil to be recycled. A DEQ grant provided 590-gallon mobile tanks and 2,000-gallon stationery tanks. Since April 1st they have collected almost 6,000 gallons of used oil from 36 participants.
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Scrap Tire Collection
In partnership with the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resource District, Keep Northeast Nebraska Beautiful and DEQ, a one-day scrap tire collection netted 153.87 tons. It was held to reduce the number of old tires from being landfilled, illegally dumped or left around homes and farmsteads. This protects water, soil and air while cleaning up unsightly piles of waste tires.
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Bazile Creek Volunteer Stream Monitoring Group
There’s a new group getting interested in the health of a local stream. It’s the Bazile Creek Volunteer Stream Monitoring Group. The volunteers began their assessment by taking note of the weather and location and gathered samples for in-stream characteristics of the physical, biological and macroinvertebrates. What they found in the stream were blood worms, stoneflies, mayflies, damselflies, netspinners, caddisflies, beetles, midges, black flies, lunged snails, clams, and minnows. After some lab work more specifics will be known, but right now this small section of the stream looks very good. The large variety of macroinvertebrates, the stable condition of the banks, existing aquatic plants, and few local watershed impacts all point to a nice, healthy stream.
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The East Branch Verdigris Creek (EBVC) Watershed above Grove Lake is located in Antelope County, in northeast Nebraska. It has been identified as a high priority watershed to develop a water quality management plan (WQMP). Groundwater sampling in the area has found elevated levels of nitrate-nitrogen. Other concerns are elevated levels of phosphorus in surface and goundwater and sediment entering the stream and Grove Lake. The Upper Elkhorn NRD, as well as other agencies, are working on a WQMP to attempt to alleviate some of the aforementioned problems.
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Weed Management Area (WMA)
The organizational boundaries of the Northeast Nebraska WMA includes the counties of Antelope, Boyd, Cedar, Dixon, Holt, Knox, Pierce, and Wayne. They plan to be involved in educating groups & landowners about noxious and invasive plants in the region, facilitate coordination between land management agencies, assist in weed identification, and seek funds to help with eradication, surveying & mapping of weeds.
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