Upper Big Blue board of directors visit southeast quadrant on annual tour

Last Friday, August 15, 2025, the board of directors and staff of the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District (UBBNRD) traveled to the Hastings area as part of their annual tour. The tour aims to provide the board with context for the areas they are responsible for and a chance to explore areas of the district to gain a greater understanding of the needs of the constituents they serve. 

Senator Dave Murman attended the tour to learn more about the variety and scope of work Nebraska’s NRDs accomplish and engage in conversations with the group.

The first stop was the Hastings Aquifer Storage and Restoration (ASR) facility, where Brandan Lubken, Director of Underground Operations at Hastings Utilities, and Mike Kuzelka, ASR facility, lead a tour of both the facility and a nearby well and educated the directors on their process for reducing the nitrate levels in the water using reverse osmosis and dilution. The ASR project is estimated to save the Hastings community around $29 million, in comparison to building a new water treatment facility. 

Rising nitrate levels are an issue throughout the district and the board is always interested in learning new techniques for mitigating the challenge.

The second stop was First Street Brewing Company for a tour by co-owner, Jessi Hoeft, who also serves on the board of directors for Little Blue NRD. The directors got a first-hand look at their unique brewing and distribution setup, which focuses on supporting local Nebraska businesses and a commitment to protecting groundwater.

After completing the brewery tour, directors sat down for a presentation from Steve Riehle, City of Hastings Public Works Lead Engineer, about two major projects going on for Lake Hastings – the dam armoring and water implantation projects. The dam armoring project is the final stages of design, awaiting funding, while the watershed implementation plan is moving from the public involvement step to additional sampling and research. As partners for the project, the directors were glad to see how it is progressing.

Riehle then lead the directors out to Lake Hastings for a site visit where they further examined the condition of the dam and discussed details of the armoring project – like raising surrounding properties and protection from 100-year flood events. 

The last stop on the tour was UNL’s South Central Agricultural Laboratory (SCAL), located in Clay County, for a tour and discussion about irrigation scheduling technologies using mobile apps and how they can be used to produce more economic yields. Dr. Saleh Taghvaeian, Associate Professor, explained that SCAL is currently conducting a study that compares the implied effectiveness across several of these types of technologies.

The tour concluded with a site visit near Grafton, NE, at one of the 11 nesting monitoring well sites being sampled as part of our expanding program. As with all locations, the site is sampled twice annually using a consistent procedure to gather data and track trends in nitrate levels over time across the district. Research like this helps the directors better understand changes in groundwater quality and inform future decisions.