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On March 1, 2021, the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE) filed a lawsuit against AltEn after the company failed to comply with a March 1 deadline to clean up and dispose of pesticide-contaminated waste generated during the process of making ethanol. This failure to comply was the final straw for NDEE after years of non-compliance with environmental standards.
According to the lawsuit, NDEE initially asked AltEn to begin disposing of the byproduct at a solid waste management facility on June 26, 2019. The first violation for failure to comply with this request was issued on September 23, 2019. On two occasions, AltEn filed responses to this violation stating that the byproducts were not solid waste and giving no indication of plans for removal. AltEn could face a $10,000 per day fine for each of 18 causes of action included in the lawsuit.
Additionally, residents in neighboring communities are concerned about the issues at the AltEn facility. They report intense odors coming from the plant have made them and their pets sick. Furthermore, some residents claim that the issues have also made it difficult to sell or rent their homes. Nevertheless; damages, if any, to surrounding property values have yet to be determined.