Future health concerns surround polluted plant in Mead
Will health problems surface in the future, will those responsible land in prison?
After two years of complaints about a polluted ethanol plant just outside Wahoo in Saunders County, questions remain.
Will health problems surface in the future, will those responsible land in prison?
It's those questions and more behind the latest call for a new state investigation into what is often billed as Nebraska’s worst environmental mess in memory, the Alt-En plant, a controversial and contaminated operation in Mead.
The plant’s single largest critic, Bellevue State Sen. Carol Blood, the Democratic candidate for governor, who is pushing fellow lawmakers for an independent investigation answering how the company was allowed to produce ethanol using corn and soybean seeds coated in pesticides.
[View our full video report above with comments from those for and against a new state investigation, along with the concerns of some lawmakers]
Nebraska's environmental czar, Jim Macy—appointed by Gov. Pete Ricketts to head up the Department of Environment and Energy in 2015—insists his office is doing all it can to fix the mess.
But some lawmakers appear to have their doubts and have pressed Macy for answers.