54-2428. National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit; construction and operating permit; application and modification; fees; Livestock Waste Management Cash Fund; created; use; investment; report.

(1) Any person required to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for an animal feeding operation or a construction and operating permit for a livestock waste control facility shall file an application with the department accompanied by the appropriate fees in the manner established by the department. The application fee shall be established by the council with a maximum fee of two hundred dollars. For major modifications to an application or a permit, the fee shall equal the amount of the application fee.

(2) On or before March 1, 2006, and each year thereafter, each person who has a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit or who has a large concentrated animal feeding operation, as defined in 40 C.F.R. 122 and 123, as such regulations existed on January 1, 2004, and a state operating permit, a construction and operating permit, or a construction approval issued pursuant to the Environmental Protection Act or the Livestock Waste Management Act shall pay a per head annual fee based on the permitted capacity identified in the permit for that facility. The department shall invoice each permittee by February 1, 2006, and February 1 of each year thereafter.

(3) The initial annual fee shall be: Beef cattle, ten cents per head; veal calves, ten cents per head; dairy cows, fifteen cents per head; swine larger than fifty-five pounds, four dollars per one hundred head or fraction thereof; swine less than fifty pounds, one dollar per one hundred head or fraction thereof; horses, twenty cents per head; sheep or lambs, one dollar per one hundred head or fraction thereof; turkeys, two dollars per one thousand head or fraction thereof; chickens or ducks with liquid manure facility, three dollars per one thousand head or fraction thereof; and chickens or ducks with other than liquid manure facility, one dollar per one thousand head or fraction thereof. This fee structure may be reviewed in fiscal year 2007-08.

(4) Beginning in fiscal year 2007-08, the department shall annually review and adjust the fee structure in this section and section 54-2423 to ensure that fees are adequate to meet twenty percent of the program costs from the previous fiscal year. All fees collected under this section and sections 54-2423, 54-2435, and 54-2436 shall be remitted to the State Treasurer for credit to the Livestock Waste Management Cash Fund which is created for the purposes described in the Livestock Waste Management Act. Transfers may be made from the fund to the General Fund at the direction of the Legislature. Any money in the Livestock Waste Management Cash Fund available for investment shall be invested by the state investment officer pursuant to the Nebraska Capital Expansion Act and the Nebraska State Funds Investment Act.

(5) On or before January 1 of each year, the department shall submit electronically a report to the Legislature in sufficient detail to document all direct and indirect costs incurred in the previous fiscal year in carrying out the Livestock Waste Management Act, including the number of inspections conducted, the number of animal feeding operations with livestock waste control facilities, the number of animal feeding operations inspected, the size of the livestock waste control facilities, the results of water quality monitoring programs, and other elements relating to carrying out the act. The Appropriations Committee of the Legislature shall review the report in its analysis of executive programs in order to verify that the revenue generated from fees was used solely to offset appropriate and reasonable costs associated with carrying out the act.

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