About the FRG
The AltEn Facility Response Group (FRG) includes six former AltEn customers – AgReliant, Bayer, Beck’s, Corteva Agriscience, Syngenta and WinField United – that formerly supplied corn seed to AltEn. It was formed after the NDWEE sought assistance with their efforts to address environmental issues at the AltEn site caused by how AltEn mishandled materials at its facility, its failure to follow requirements outlined in its customer agreements and its lack of compliance with federal and state environmental regulations.
The companies comprising the FRG joined together to address the unsafe conditions created by AltEn’s mismanagement of solids and water generated by the ethanol production process on-site and are participating in the NDWEE’s Voluntary Clean-up Program based on a Memorandum of Agreement. The FRG has stabilized the AltEn site, developed a Remedial Action Plan (RAP) for water stored at the site, and completed the Wet Cake RAP with the full removal of all wet cake in August 2025. This work is helping the FRG to ensure the safety of the surrounding community and environment.
The FRG members do not own the site, have never operated the ethanol facility, and played no role in AltEn’s management of its facility. The site owner, AltEn, is the permitted entity at the site and is not a member of the FRG and is not contributing to the voluntary measures being implemented by the FRG.
remediation timeline
History of AltEn’s Operations at the Site
NDEE orders AltEn to cease discharging process water into the site’s three lagoons and emergency pond. AltEn soon after vacates the site.
A digester at the site fails due to heating being shut off to the digester by AltEn employees. It releases approximately four million gallons of thin stillage and manure. The manure is a byproduct from the adjacent Mead Cattle Company property.
NDEE issues another emergency order prohibiting AltEn from resuming operations until the digester discharge is sufficiently remediated.
The AltEn Facility Response Group (FRG), a group of six companies that were former customers of AltEn, begins to collaborate after NDEE sought assistance with their efforts to address environmental issues at the AltEn site. Groundwater and environmental monitoring begin. NDEE testing has consistently shown no evidence of impacts to local groundwater.
This system creates 29 million gallons of above-ground temporary storage to begin moving, treating, and storing water from the emergency pond and lagoons to begin to bring back the lagoons to within safe operating levels. This multi-stage treatment process reduces pesticide residues to very low levels, which will result in a fraction of EPA-approved agricultural rates during land application.
After AltEn fails to comply with NDEE order, the State of Nebraska files suit against AltEn in the District Court of Saunders County. The lawsuit against AltEn remains pending while the FRG has managed the substantial work necessary to mitigate and stabilize the site.
FRG submits an interim Remedial Action Plan (RAP) detailing the substantial activities undertaken by the FRG to manage the immediate concerns relating to lagoon water and wet cake stored on the AltEn site, as well as stormwater runoff.
The FRG refurbishes the emergency pond, ensuring the digester tanks can be safely drained, treats 13.4 million gallons of lagoon water, consolidates wet cake in one location, winterizes AltEn’s ethanol process plant and piping, and manages the chemical inventory left behind by AltEn.
The temporary Posi-Shell covering is installed to contain waste, control odor, and prevent contact between the wet cake and any precipitation, preventing the generation of additional contaminated stormwater.
The FRG provides an update on the remediation operations to local leaders, news media, and the NDEE.
FRG companies file civil lawsuits against AltEn for breach of contract to hold the AltEn entities accountable for remediation of the environmental conditions they created at the AltEn site.
NDEE enters an administrative consent order with AltEn that supersedes the emergency orders issued in February 2021. However, despite the order, AltEn and its affiliated companies (and their management) continue to evade their obligations to finance or otherwise substantively address the environmental conditions at the site.
NDEE conducts a groundwater investigation consisting of 7 direct-push borings and installing 2 monitoring wells (MW-EE1 and MW-EE2). Constituents are materially present in one of the direct-push groundwater samples taken adjacent to the Northwest Lagoon (SP-2), but the constituents are not consistent with those in the Northwest Lagoon water or any other monitoring well. NDEE testing has consistently shown no evidence of impacts to local groundwater.
The FRG continues to treat wastewater, treating over 18 million gallons by May 25. The water is tested and confirmed to comply with approved NDEE thresholds for land application. Over 9 million gallons of treated water is successfully applied to local fields as a nutrient-rich benefit for crop health.
An additional monitoring well was installed by the FRG at the same location as NDEE’s direct-push boring SP-2 which indicated constituents were materially present. The analytical results from this well indicated that two pesticides were present at concentrations above groundwater screening levels identified by the NDEE as being appropriate for human health exposure. All other site groundwater samples collected since then have been well below screening levels. NDEE testing has consistently shown no evidence of impacts to local groundwater.
Repairs are made to Posi-Shell covering of wet cake due to cracks that formed from settling. There is no indication that these cracks resulted in any release of contact stormwater. The FRG will continue routine inspections, monitoring, and repairs as needed of the Posi-Shell.
The FRG installs 3 additional monitoring wells on the AltEn site for expanded monitoring purposes and NDEE installs two additional monitoring wells. The FRG and NDEE sample all 10 wells on the AltEn site. The NDEE also samples 48 off-site wells. MW-5, the well immediately adjacent to the AltEn Northwest lagoon, continues to be the only groundwater monitoring well where constituents present in the lagoon water appear to have been materially present in the groundwater sample. NDEE testing has consistently shown no evidence of impacts to local groundwater.
FRG submits its final Water RAP for NDEE approval on October 14, 2022.
The NDEE and the FRG continue conducting additional groundwater testing following the detection of active ingredients in one groundwater well adjacent to the Northwest AltEn lagoon. A final deep monitoring well was installed and groundwater is sampled; results will be shared when available. NDEE testing has consistently shown no evidence of impacts to local groundwater.
FRG treated 49 million gallons of water throughout the year, 29.4 million gallons of which has been applied to nearby farms as a nutrient-rich benefit for crop health, after working with the NDEE to meet several regulatory steps and secure permits required for this process. The FRG also has worked closely with the Saunders County Highway Department so that treated water can be safely piped under roads and onto nearby fields.
The FRG implemented a Solid Waste Pilot Program to better understand variables at play with off-site disposal of non-hazardous wet cake at the abandoned AltEn site. The program addressed solidification and the rate at which the FRG could send truckloads to the landfill, potential impact on communities and infrastructure along the transportation routes, and landfill contractor coordination.
In preparation to remove non-hazardous wet cake from the AltEn site, trucks began removing trash, wooden pallets, empty containers and biochar that was taken to WM’s Pheasant Point landfill in October 2023.
A total of 157 truckloads removed 1,587.73 tons of trash and debris from the AltEn site.
A new water treatment plant began operating to remove solids and pesticides more efficiently from water on the AltEn site. The treated water will eventually be applied to land.
The FRG announced engagement or contract? with WM to begin disposal of the solidified wet cake at WM’s Pheasant Point Landfill, which is authorized by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE) to accept non-hazardous waste such as wet cake. The AltEn site is preparing for solidification and transportation of the wet cake to begin the last week of September, including the installation of equipment (e.g., pugmill mixers to enable solidification, wheel washers for loaded trucks prior to exiting the site) and other steps to prepare the site.
Each truck carries approximately 20 tons of wet cake at a rate of six trucks per hour. Up to 1,000 truckloads are expected to transport solidified wet cake to WM’s Pheasant Point landfill. This phase of the Solid Waste Pilot Project will conclude in November 2023.
The FRG worked with a contractor to transport and dispose of seed at a waste-to-energy facility. More than 2,600 tons of seed were removed from the AltEn site’s North and South Hoop Buildings from August to October 2023. An additional 4,400 tons of seed will be removed from an on-site silo.
The FRG has treated 8.8 million gallons of water in 2023, bringing the total to 58.2 million gallons treated to date. The process is on track to apply 20 million gallons of treated water to land by mid-November 2023.
In October and November 2023, a total of 10,208 tons of solidified wet cake were transported to WM’s Pheasant Point Landfill. The pilot is pausing for the Winter because the ability to solidify the wet cake is limited if temperatures are low enough to freeze it; the pilot will continue in Spring 2024.
Groundwater testing, soil sample analysis and water treatment for additional farmland application are among the site activities that continue through Winter 2024.
More than 6,100 tons of leftover seed have been removed from the AltEn site. Nearly 200 trucks transported unused from the site’s two hoop buildings, as well as the site’s corn seed silo.
Gas whales, which are bubbles above the water surface that result from naturally produced gases that accumulate under lagoon liners, were safely deflated to enable further pumping of water for treatment.
Treatment of the site’s remaining 40 million gallons of lagoon water is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2024. Spring and Fall farmland applications will continue in 2025 until all treated water is applied.
In May, mobilization and site preparation began to resume wet cake removal and complete the pilot project by mid-summer 2024. More than 500 truckloads will transport solidified wet cake to WM’s Pheasant Point Landfill.
The Wet Cake Pilot Project was successfully completed. A total of 12,100 tons of solidified wet cake (592 truckloads) were transported to and safely disposed of at WM’s Pheasant Point Landfill through the end of July. Based on the positive results of the pilot project, wet cake will continue to be removed from the site through Fall 2024.
Removal of Southeast Lagoon solids through dredging commenced this week and is expected to continue through September. Dredged solids are being pumped into Geotubes located in the Northeast Lagoon to consolidate and dewater the solids. Water draining from the Geotubes and stormwater within the Northeast Lagoon will be pumped to the Southeast Lagoon for treatment.
Solids within the Northeast and Northwest Lagoons were consolidated and the accessible liner was removed and transported off-site to WM's Pheasant Point Landfill for disposal.
More than 165,000 tons of solidified wet cake were transported and safely disposed of at WM’s Pheasant Point Landfill between Fall 2023 and Summer 2025, marking the successful completion of the Wet Cake Remedial Action Plan.
More than 114.5 million gallons of water have been treated on site, and more than 50 million gallons have been applied to local land.
FRG submitted a recommendation for Solids RAP to NDWEE in October 2025.