Generations of corn growing, feedlot runoff and unwitting nitrogen overuse has left a sobering legacy buried in the Nebraska soil.

Nebraska’s groundwater is becoming increasingly laced with nitrate. And small towns, cities and rural Nebraskans are getting stuck paying the tab.

There are few staff to monitor Nebraska’s vast swaths of farmland, thousands of cattle feedlots, large hog operations and chicken farms. And the agencies’ own regulations don’t give the staff many tools to combat malpractice.