OMAHA ? The Nebraska Cattlemen, the state’s largest livestock organization, endorses proposed legislation that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from considering manure as hazardous waste and making feedlots potential Superfund sites.

“It’s an important issue for us because of the connotation that it brings in for all of agriculture, all of livestock in Nebraska, regardless of whether it’s cattle, poultry, sheep, pigs, buffalo,” said the Cattlemen’s Duane Gangwish.

The city of Waco, Texas, reached an out-of-court settlement with six dairy operations that their alleged contamination of the city water supply should qualify for Superfund attention.

Gangwish said it would be a “far leap” that the settlement would lead to the creation of EPA policy on manure as hazardous waste, but he thinks a clarification is in order.

Sen. Ben Nelson, of Nebraska, is poised to be the leading Democratic sponsor of a Senate bill that would place agriculture off-limits to Superfund status.