The State of Nebraska Just Put Compost in Writing

Written By Audrey Woita

There's a line on page 29 of the Governor's Water Task Force report that we’re celebrating.

It's under Goal 7, the soil health goal, buried in a list of how the state plans to measure whether any of this is actually working. And it says:

"Increase in acres with sampled manure or compost applied."

This is a measurable statewide goal that’s tied to funding and implementation timelines. For our team at Soil Dynamics and Hillside Solutions, which has spent years hauling organic material to farms and building the infrastructure to get it there, seeing that in a state policy document is a big deal.

Here’s why you should care about the report:

Governor Pillen stood up this Task Force in 2025 to deal with water quality and water quantity at the same time. Twenty people spent ten months in subcommittee meetings. NRD managers, agronomists, a feedyard operator, agency directors, a drilling company president. They heard from a dozen subject-matter experts and came out the other side with 14 goals.

The water quality piece boils down to nitrates.

Over 85% of Nebraskans drink groundwater. In parts of the state, nitrate levels have been climbing since the 1930s. The source is mostly excess nitrogen from synthetic fertilizers. It leaches past crop roots, sits in the soil for years (sometimes decades), and eventually reaches the aquifer. You can't scoop it out. Once it's down there, it stays.

The Task Force recommended incentives, education, and better tools over new regulations. Reduce how much synthetic nitrogen goes into the ground. Help producers apply what they do use more precisely. And build healthier soil that holds nutrients on its own, so you need less synthetic input over time.

That third piece is where compost shows up. And it shows up as infrastructure (which is what we’re excited about).

We helped shape this

In November 2025, Andy Harpenau, founder of Hillside Fund, presented to the Task Force's Methods and Resources subcommittee. The topic: "On Farm Organics Management in Nebraska." He talked about what's already happening. Processed organic material from Soil Dynamics going out to real farms, on real acres, right here in the Omaha region.

Hillside Fund was built for exactly this work. Composting education. Farmer outreach. Getting organic amendments onto fields so producers can pull back on the synthetic fertilizers that are contaminating Nebraska's drinking water. We've been at this for a while. When the final report came out and read like a policy version of our mission, it was encouraging to see that kind of alignment. Being part of the conversation that shaped these recommendations makes the work ahead feel concrete.

The detail worth paying attention to: compost didn't get its own standalone section. It's woven across the entire soil health and nitrogen reduction framework. That means it qualifies under soil health BMPs, nitrogen management BMPs, and water quality BMPs. Three different funding categories: NRD programs, the Nitrogen Reduction Incentive Act, ONE RED dollars, Water Resources Cash Fund. That positioning is wider than a single line item, and it's deliberate.

Clean water starts in the soil

When you hear "water quality," you probably picture treatment plants. Filters. Testing kits. Infrastructure you can point at. That stuff matters, and the report addresses drinking water systems, too.

The bigger argument the Task Force is making is about what happens upstream of the tap. Nitrate contamination accumulates over years in the field, long before that water reaches anyone's well.

Healthy soil holds onto nutrients. It pulls water in instead of sending it sideways into streams. It cycles nitrogen slowly, through microbial activity, instead of dumping it all at once in a form that races toward the water table.

The report lays out four core soil health principles: minimize disturbance, maximize living roots, maximize soil cover, and maximize biodiversity. If you've worked with compost-amended soil over multiple seasons, you'll recognize what those principles describe. Better aggregation. More biology in the top layers. Higher organic matter. The soil picks up work that synthetic inputs used to handle, without loading the aquifer.

That's soil science. And now it's sitting inside a state policy framework with deadlines and dollars behind it (yay!).

Your food scraps are part of this

Hillside Solutions is launching the Curbside Compost Club, a subscription service that picks up food scraps and compostable materials from homes in Omaha. The destination is the part that matters.

Collected material goes to Soil Dynamics in Ashland. It gets decontaminated and blended together. That material then goes out to local farms in the Omaha area, farms that can use it to cut back on the synthetic nitrogen that's been driving nitrate contamination for decades.

Kitchen counter → compost facility → local farm → healthier soil → cleaner water.

That's the supply chain. The Governor's Task Force just spent ten months recommending the state invest in scaling exactly this kind of loop.

Every household that signs up is feeding organic material into a system that directly addresses the nitrate problem twenty experts and the Governor are trying to solve. The food scraps you'd otherwise throw away end up building soil on a Nebraska farm. That farm uses less synthetic fertilizer. Less nitrogen leaches into the groundwater. It's a long game, but the pieces are connected.

What comes next

The Task Force report is a starting point. The members say so themselves. Implementation will take sustained commitment and coordination across agencies, NRDs, and producers.

Hillside Fund is going to keep working with farmers, NRDs, and state partners to expand access to compost-based soil amendments and the education that goes with them. Having a state policy framework that aligns with this work gives all of us a stronger foundation to build on.

If you want your food scraps going to a Nebraska farm instead of a landfill, the Curbside Compost Club is where you start.

Sign up for the Curbside Compost Club at hillside.solutions →

The full Governor's Water Quality and Quantity Task Force Final Report is available at dnr.nebraska.gov/water-quality-and-quantity-task-force.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Governor Pillen formed the Task Force in 2025 to develop recommendations for protecting Nebraska's water resources, with an emphasis on reducing nitrate levels in groundwater. Twenty members from NRDs, agriculture, and state agencies spent ten months producing a final report with 14 goals covering water measurement, nitrogen management, soil health, drinking water access, and funding. The full report is available at dnr.nebraska.gov/water-quality-and-quantity-task-force.

  • Compost helps reduce nitrate contamination by improving soil's ability to hold and cycle nitrogen naturally. When farms use compost-based organic fertilizer instead of synthetic nitrogen, less excess nitrogen leaches past crop roots toward the water table. The Governor's Task Force report includes compost application as a measurable success metric under its soil health goals.

  • Compost increases organic matter, supports microbial diversity, and improves soil aggregation. These changes help soil hold water and nutrients more effectively, which means crops can access what they need while less nitrogen moves toward groundwater. The Task Force report's four core soil health principles — minimize disturbance, maximize living roots, maximize soil cover, maximize biodiversity — all align with the outcomes of regular compost application.

  • The Nitrogen Reduction Incentive Act (NiRIA), implemented in 2024, offers financial incentives to Nebraska producers who reduce their nitrogen fertilizer application rates. The program is administered by the Department of Water, Energy, and Environment in collaboration with local NRDs and received over 1,300 applications in its first year. Compost-based soil amendments support the same nitrogen reduction goals the program is designed to achieve.

  • Food scraps collected through programs like the Curbside Compost Club go to Soil Dynamics in Ashland, NE, where the material is decontaminated and blended into organic fertilizer. That fertilizer is distributed to local farms in the Omaha area, where it replaces synthetic nitrogen and helps build healthier soil. The drop-off composting program follows a different path, producing retail soil products at the Soil Dynamics facility.

  • Hillside Fund's co-founder Andy Harpenau presented to the Task Force's Methods and Resources subcommittee in November 2025 on the topic of on-farm organics management. Hillside Fund's mission of composting education, farmer outreach, and reducing synthetic fertilizer dependence aligns directly with the Task Force's soil health and nitrogen reduction goals.

  • Goal 7 of the Task Force report calls for increased adoption of soil health practices that improve nutrient cycling, reduce nitrogen application rates, maximize water infiltration, and minimize runoff. Specific success metrics include increased acres with cover crops, reduced tillage, and increased acres with sampled manure or compost applied. The report also recommends incentives and producer-to-producer education to accelerate adoption.

  • The Curbside Compost Club collects food scraps from Omaha households and sends them to Soil Dynamics in Ashland, where they're processed into organic fertilizer for local farms. Those farms can use the organic fertilizer to reduce their reliance on synthetic nitrogen, which is the primary driver of nitrate contamination in Nebraska's groundwater. Each participating household contributes material to a system that directly supports the state's water quality goals.

Audrey Woita