KNOX COUNTY- For more than four decades, the Cedar-Knox Rural Water Project has drawn water from Lewis and Clark Lake and pumped it into communities and homes across northeast Nebraska, some nearly 40 miles away. But a constant influx of fine sand and other sediment and the organic material that comes with it has created challenges for the regional water system.

Better known as THMs, trihalomethanes have been linked to bladder and colon cancers, and are suspected of causing a range of other health issues affecting the liver, kidney and central nervous system. The Cedar-Knox Rural Water Project has until recently been able to keep its THMs level underneath the threshold deemed safe by the EPA, but it's becoming increasingly difficult.

The Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy put the water system under an administrative order for the first time in 2017 after the concentrations rose above the threshold deemed safe. $7 million was approved by state lawmakers to help address the problem but fell victim to a veto from Gov. Pillen. The system is now receiving a boost in attention due to funding secured by Sen. Deb Fischer in Washington.

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