Pillen Admits He and Other Farmers ‘Messed Up,’ Expects New State Agency to Improve Water Management

By Cindy Gonzalez

LINCOLN — In marking the merger of two water-focused state agencies, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Wednesday said he and other farmers “messed up” in managing water resources.

“What’s really, really important is we go forward, that we all just have the courage to say the way it is,” said Pillen, whose family runs a Columbus-based hog operation and who became the state’s first farmer-governor in more than a century.

“I’m a farmer. We don’t want to admit that we messed up, but we did. We’ve over-applied fertilizer, we’ve over-applied water, and we drove nitrates down into the ground, and we have nitrates in groundwater.”

Adding that it was time to “stop talking about it,” Pillen said a motivation behind merging two state agencies focused on water resources was to lean on new technology and scientific advancements to “educate all farmers in Nebraska so that we fix the problem and start having measurable breakthrough results.”

With that, the governor signed Legislative Bill 317, which he pushed and State Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth helped carry over the finish line. The law combines the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (DEE) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) into the new Department of Water, Energy, and Environment (DWEE).

Familiar Leaders

Pillen, during the same Capitol news conference Wednesday, introduced two men already involved in the respective departments who will lead the combined agency. 

Jesse Bradley takes the reins as DWEE director and Matt Manning becomes “chief water officer.” Both described themselves as lifelong Nebraskans.

Bradley, who most recently was interim director of both agencies, said he would stress collaboration with organizations across the state and building a good internal culture.

He said the department’s priorities include fulfilling the Perkins County Canal project and working with the new “Water Quality and Quantity Task Force” Pillen is launching to help adopt solutions for water issues, especially in agriculture.

Bradley has degrees in environmental geology and hydrogeology and is a licensed professional geologist. He started with the state in 2006 as an integrated water management analyst, the Governor’s Office said, and in 2012 became head of the water planning division. Two years later, he was promoted to deputy director of DNR.

Manning, an engineer with DNR since 2023, oversees planning and development of the Perkins County Canal project and said he sees his task as building upon and improving what the two organizations already do. Prior to his state job, Manning worked for several engineering firms and established his own civil construction company.

As appointees of the governor, Bradley and Manning must be confirmed by the Legislature. LB 317, which creates the merged agency, has an emergency clause and takes effect in July.

Also at the event was State Sen. Barry DeKay of Niobrara, chair of the Legislature’s Agriculture Committee.

‘Common Sense’

Asked about the potential for finding cost-savings, Pillen said he had no definitive projection or supportive data but said it made “common sense” that efficiencies would result.

During debate on the legislative floor in April, a few lawmakers noted the lack of a clear vision for any cost savings. State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln said at the time it would be more accurate to call the merger a “rebranding.”

State and federal appropriations for the two departments totaled about $203 million, according to a recent legislative fiscal impact statement. It said that over time, efficiencies from a merger should result in savings.

Pillen on Wednesday called water the second most important thing about Nebraska, behind its people. 

“It’s our lifeblood. It’s like God’s grace. You can’t make it. You receive it, and we can take care of it,” he said.

Pillen said the merger was “timely and important” and noted that many take for granted “our pot of gold” — the Ogallala Aquifer — which the governor said irrigates almost 11 million acres in the state. 

He said he has been meeting with local Natural Resources Districts over the past 18 months, and there will be a broader effort to preserve and improve water resources and to protect the aquifer.

Today’s technology and science, he said, allows the state to be proactive rather than reactive in managing water, and that’s a mission of the newly merged team. 

‘Every Drop of Water’

Pillen said power and water will be increasingly vital to future generations of Nebraskans. “When you think about the production of hydrogen, you think about the advancement of biofuels, you think about all the biobased products and all that we’re making out of ethanol from corn. You think about the animal processing, how our livestock industries exploded in the last 20 years.” 

In response to a reporter’s question, Pillen said he would continue to push construction of the Perkins County Canal. “We’re gonna fight like heck to make sure that we get every drop of water that comes to Nebraska for us,” he said.

Some state lawmakers, during debate on how to close the state’s budget deficit, have urged reducing funding earmarked for the western Nebraska canal, which would transport water from the Platte River in Colorado into Nebraska. The initiative has spurred water rights debates between the two states.

Pillen, reiterating his hope to turn a page on water quality and quantity in Nebraska, noted that the room in which he holds news conferences used to be dark from people smoking in it. He said that is no longer the case.

“You know, we learn and we move forward, and it’s time to get after it,” he said. “That’s what I’m excited about with this merger.”

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