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Nebraska legislature creates Water Sustainability Fund

Nebraska lawmakers have given final approval to legislation creating a new water sustainability fund.

The fund will help local governments and the state pay for water projects, with an 11 million dollar annual appropriation.

Nebraska Farm Bureau president Steve Nelson calls it “a milestone piece of legislation”. He says the difference between this bill and previous water-related bills is that this one provides significant funding.

“It’s taken a number of years—we’ve talked about it for a long time,” Nelson says. “We’ve been able to get smaller amounts of money moved towards these issues before, but never this kind of commitment from the state.”

Budget bills that were approved this year are expected to generate 32 million dollars for the fund by mid-2015.

AUDIO: Steve Nelson (4:38 MP3)