The Nebraska Department of Health, for example, monitors municipal water supplies. The NRDs test water that comes from rural domestic and irrigation wells as well as water that is used by rural water districts. The Nebraska Department of Agriculture has the responsibility for monitoring proper use of pesticides in the state. Directors of a number of state agencies, including DEQ, act as an advisory committee to the Department of Agriculture in this activity. Passage of LB 138, the state lottery bill, in 1993 provides for a Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund to be established with 25 percent of the lottery proceeds.
Money collected is used to pay for wetland preservation and for other environmental uses.
The fund is administered by the Nebraska Environmental Trust Board, with members from both the public and private sectors. Zoning regulations by local units of government have directly responded to some environmental problems. For example, livestock feedlots may be required to be at least a minimum distance away from a city, village or rural residence. Finally, environmental initiatives at the national level are having an ever-larger impact on Nebraskans. It is impossible to list all such programs and policies, but the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts are symbolic.