Heavy rain contributed to the Ericson Dam in Wheeler County failing Sunday evening.

According to the National Weather Service in Hastings, water levels at Ericson exceeded the maximum dam height and water flowed into the emergency spillway. The spillway began to erode before 8 p.m., and the spillway breached thereafter, causing water to drain from the lake, NWS reported.

Water levels behind the dam were estimated at 23 or 24 feet, and this water drains into the Cedar River. At 9:45 p.m., the floodwater reached the Wheeler and Greeley County line, and six inches of water was flowing over the Highway 281 bridge. Around 11 p.m., NWS said that Greeley County officials reported water over county roads in northern Greeley County. No evacuations were necessary in Greeley County as of Monday morning.

A flash flood warning is in effect for northeast Greeley County due to the failure of Ericson dam. NWS said there is a river gauge along the Cedar River near Spalding, and the Cedar River has climbed to over 16 feet at this gauge site. County roads near the river are under water and significant low land flooding is anticipated. Farther downstream, the Cedar River near Fullerton is forecast to rise, but remain below the flood stage of 9 feet.

As of 7 p.m., the NWS reported the following rainfall amount from Sunday into Monday morning, Aurora, 0.77 of an inch; Grand Island, 0.73 of an inch, Ord, 1.84 inches and Hastings, 0.27 of an inch.

Observers for the Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network, reported 1.70 inches near Broken Bow, 1.51 inches near Scotia, 1.24 inches near Genoa and 1.24 inch near Arcadia.

Rain continues in the forecast today with clearing skies Tuesday before another chance of thunderstorms on Wednesday.

So far this month, Grand Island has received 4.51 inches of rain. Since Friday, Grand Island has had 2.98 inches of rain.

NWS reported that this weekend weather problems began with thunderstorms Friday night into Saturday morning bringing two to three inches of rain to much of the south central Nebraska and north central Kansas. The storms also brought a couple rounds of severe weather primarily in the form of straight line wind damage, NWS reported.

The heavy rainfall also created excessive runoff across portions of Valley County which caused the Bredthauer Dam (located approximately 4 1/2 miles upstream of North Loup) to break. Once the dam broke Saturday afternoon, NWS said the water went downstream into North Loup creating extensive flooding throughout town. At one point, the entire town was evacuated due to the flooding.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has the backing of most of Nebraska’s agricultural industry in saying that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would be overreaching on regulating carbon emissions and it could “substantially raise Nebraskans’ electricity rates and damage the state’s economy.”

 Nelson is a co-sponsor of  the Murkowski Disapproval Resolution aiming to curb the EPA regulations.

 “I am supporting this resolution to protect the Nebraska economy, and our nation’s economy, from EPA overreach.  It’s that simple,” Nelson told is colleagues during speech on the Senate floor Thursday.  “I want to send a clear message: Nebraska’s farmers, ranchers, business owners, cities, towns and hundreds of thousands of electricity consumers should not have their economic fortunes determined by unelected bureaucrats in Washington.”

Sen. Mike Johanns also voted for the resolution, which failed by a vote of 47-53. He was also a co-sponsor of the resolution.

“The EPA’s decision to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act represents a gross overreach by a federal agency that could wreak havoc on our struggling economy,” Johanns said.  “This decision could be economically devastating, imposing higher costs on businesses and putting them at a disadvantage because overseas competitors will not be subject to similar regulation.  This means higher costs for consumers and less job growth, it’s that simple.”

  Nelson said, “Just because somebody’s frustrated with the pace of action in Congress doesn’t mean the EPA should become a super-legislative body.”

Nelson’s vote comes at a time when the federal government is being criticized for its lack of oversight involving the incident that caused the massive, deadly oil spill in the Gulf and as a majority of Americans believe that climate change and global warming is brought about, in part, of man’s massive use of fossil fuels and the greenhouse gases that use releases into the atmosphere contribute to the climate change problem.

Nelson said the resolution would prevent the expansion of EPA authority to include the ability to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.  Its intent is to allow Congress to write the new regulations curbing carbon emissions, and does not change existing pollution controls in the Clean Air Act.

But the massive oil spill brings a sense of urgency about controlling and regulating the use of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases. It also comes at a time when Nebraska is poised to be a major player in the nation’s growing wind industry that will eventually replace much of  the need for coal burning plants with renewable and non-polluting energy from the wind.

Nelson said he has no doubt that carbon emissions should be reduced in the U.S, “but not through excessively costly EPA regulations or a complicated cap and trade proposal that could spur speculation that enriches Wall Street, while not cleaning their air above Main Street.”

The big question right now, though,will it be  “excessively costly” to American taxpayer, who will more than likely have to pay for a big part of the expense of cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico since the oil company’s libability is limited and the spill continues to reap massive damage to the Gulf.

But Nelson’s said greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced through a comprehensive energy bill – “one that promotes efficiency, innovation, new technology, and renewable energy such as wind and biofuels that can be produced in Nebraska’s fields.”

But with the political divide in the Congress is a “comprehensive energy bill” even possible? There’s some question about the current “comprehensive” energy legistion now in the Senate that it won’t ensure near-term renewable energy deployment beyond business-as-usual.

 According to an analysis by the Union of Concern Scientists, a national renewable electricity standard requiring utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from genuine renewable sources by 2025 would create 297,000 jobs nationally and spur over $263 billion in economic development while saving American consumers $64.3 billion on their energy bills.

 That’s the kind of urgency that a true comprehensive energy bill would achieve and not one that may provide loopholes allowing utilities to avoid using renewables.

 The other big question is how will the oil spill influence that “comprehensive energy bill.” It’s a little ironic that we have jumped down the back of the federal government recently  for not doing more to regulate safety in coal mines and not doing more to regulate offshore drilling but we don’t want the EPA, which is a government agency, to do what it was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to do.

Many people believe that there’s a conflict thinking that private industry can regulate its owns when it comes to being good stewards of the environment. That impression is definitely being shattered by the massive oil spill in the Gulf. The big question is if the U.S. is serious about being energy independent, which also means eventually independent of fossil fuel, some hard decisions have to be made and made soon about what role the federal government plays in that process.

 And from the state support Nelson has for his vote on the Murkowski Disapproval Resolution from agriculture, business, manufacturing, and energy groups in Nebraska and across the country including: Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation, Nebraska Cattlemen, Nebraska Corn Growers Association, Nebraska Dry Bean Growers Association, Nebraska Soybean Association, Nebraska Wheat Board, Nebraska Wheat Growers Association, Nebraska Public Power District, Omaha Public Power District, Lincoln, Electric System, Nebraska Rural Electric Association, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, MidAmerican Energy, Nucor Corporation, CHS Inc., US Chamber of Commerce, Associated General Contractors of America, National Association of Manufacturers, and the North American Die Casting Association, it may be business as ususal when it comes to getting a handle on what needs to be done to control the harm we are doing to the environment now and its impact on future generations.

A researcher from the University of Delaware, James Corbett, said that as of, Wednesday, June 9, if all the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico had been used for fuel, it could have powered 38,000 cars, and 3,400 trucks, and 1,800 ships for a full year. That’s based on the estimated spill rate of 19,000 barrels of oil per day.

The bigger question is how many birds, fishes, and other life forms will die because of the oil spill and how long will this spill keep their survivors homeless? How much of the environment have we temporary disabled?

• By May 5 (15 days after the spill), the oil lost could have fueled 470 container ships serving New York and New Jersey ports for a year.
• By May 25 (35 days after the spill), energy from the spilled oil could have provided a year’s gasoline for all registered automobiles (about 26,000 cars) in Newark, Del., where UD’s main campus is located.
• By May 31 (41 days after the spill), the lost energy could have fueled one freight truck on 17 trips across all 4 million miles of U.S. highway.

Corbett said transportation activities consume about two-thirds of all petroleum in the United States — more than 20 billion barrels per day. He said gasoline for automobiles accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. total transportation energy, diesel fuels power most of our goods movement, and most international containerized cargoes are delivered by ships — the largest vehicles ever built.

“Energy resources offshore are being explored because each of us petroleum consumers is demanding more,” Corbett said.

He said drilling this exploratory well by the Deepwater Horizon was an extremely high-risk proposition.

“At $75 per barrel of crude oil, the oil spilled would have been worth about $90 million in terms of spill oil value if extracted for refining,” Corbett said. ”Some experts are now estimating damages from the spill to exceed $10 billion. That’s a potential 100 to 1 loss, given the spill damage-to-value ratio.”

Corbett’s research collaborations focus on ways to improve the energy performance of transportation systems using ships, trucks, trains, and other vehicles. There are ways to reduce the need for offshore oil drilling, Corbett said:

• If we improve automobile fuel economy to 35.5 miles per gallon (mpg), as proposed by the current administration, we would offset demand equivalent to the gasoline energy lost by 199 years of Deepwater Horizon daily releases.
• If we add only 2 mpg to the fuel economy for trucks, as proposed by the Union of Concerned Scientists, we would offset diesel-driven energy demand equivalent to 12 years of Deepwater Horizon daily releases.
• Rebalancing how we transport goods would achieve substantial energy savings. A shift from truck to rail for specific commodities/routes would require about 20 percent of the energy per ton-mile compared to trucking. Achieving this would require an investment in infrastructure and green logistics to facilitate intermodal combinations of trucking and rail rather than treating the modes as competitors.
• Shifting passengers from single-occupant cars to car-sharing/carpooling and better transit also would produce important reductions.

“The wise use of petroleum and other energy resources is an opportunity for each of us,” Corbett said. “We can reduce the need to drill deeper into environmental risk. Within a few miles of our communities, we can do a lot to reduce energy demand.”

Aftrer 50 days of oil spilling in the Gulf of Mexico since the British Petroleum disaster, Keith Bolin, president of the American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) said that it is becoming even more apparent that a new, cleaner source of renewable energy must take the place of fossil fuels such as oil.

“Solar Energy is what originally produced fossil fuels in vast quantities and solar energy is now the answer,” Bolin said. “It has only been in recent history that oil consumption has overshadowed use of other, more renewable energy sources as the industrial age began.”

Bolin said that  through this time “we have wasted vast quantities of solar energy that could have replaced this stored energy source to a great degree and with much less chance of environmental disaster such as we now face in the Gulf of Mexico.”

 “Agriculture has and always will be principle solar energy collectors” said Bolin. “All of the energy needs of this nation can be found from the sun beating down on only a small percentage of land mass if we just utilize it more efficiently and find better ways to store it.”

He said the only reason that this opportunity has not been fulfilled is because “crude oil is perceived as a cheaper energy source and has been promoted and developed as a short term solution to our energy needs.”

 “The name says it all” said Bolin “Crude Oil; a crude form of energy that has the ability to wreak tremendous havoc on our environment if it is not finally contained after only 150 years of use.”

Bolin also called on the EPA to quickly increase the blend rate of ethanol in America’s gas supply as an available, cheap and clean replacement to the lost oil supply from reduced drilling in the Gulf. He also called for new, unbiased studies of biofuels and their obvious positive benefit to the environment, energy system and climate change mitigation.

“That it is time to quit listening to ‘Big Oil’ about how safe their products are while they spend decades spreading negative propaganda about ethanol,” he said.

 Bolin said that while agriculture is not perfect in its environmental footprint, huge strides have been made in preventing soil erosion and fertilizer runoffs from productive farm fields of the Midwest. Buffer strips, no-till farming practices and integrated pest management systems are now the norm in the breadbasket of America and will only continue to get better.